Tales of Light and Darkness
by Diabolic Tracer
Summary: In the city of Easthaven exist a mansion whose inhabitants are a boy and two girls, the mysterious family of Greyson. No one knows who they are or where they came from. But when something supernatural happens, monsters show up, or a dark cult makes its move, they are always there, living in a world beyond humanity's understanding. A place of absolute light. And absolute darkness.
1. The More We Change Part 1

**Hello there! I know that it's a little strange for me to put the author note at the start of the chapter, but there is some important/vital information that I want to share with you guys.**

 **First, due to the way how his story is constructed, it's going to initially assume you know things that you can't possibly know. These will be further explained and elaborated on at a later point in the story.**

 **Secondary, this is going to be a pretty dark story, so I might change the rating to 'M'. Some of the tehemes that are going to be explored in this story are going to be pretty creepy and twisted so you are warned. I also plan to have a more S** **lice-of-life feel to this story, so for the most part, it won't be an action filled story, but I'm going to try and include at least one duel in every chapter.**

 **Third, the reason why I choose to publish this under the Arc-V/VRAINS crossover tab is because this story is going to use elements from both animes. For instant, this story is following the Master Rule 4 layout for duels and there are going to be, in fact, Action Duels are a later point in the story (as well as Speed Duels). Keep in mind that I'm not completely sure if this excuses putting the story in this tab, so I might have to change that at a later point.**

 **Fourth, this story was, for the most part, written for my own enjoyment and it isn't a serious project that I spent weeks or months working on. The main point of Tales of Light and Darkness are to exploit stories and concepts that I wouldn't be able to use in my main projects. You are going to see fan-made rules and mechanics (Not summoning mechanics) connected to the trading game along with many other things. By that logic, it acts more like an idea** **dumpster than anything else. I can't say if there is going to be a coherent plot with this story, so no promises there.**

 **Fifth and last, since this story uses characters from my other projects, I want to state right here that the versions of the characters you see here aren't the same as the original ones. Their backstories and appearance might differ from the originals and for the sake of this story, their ages were changed as well. Here are the characters' ages in this story:**

 **Evan Greyson (16)**

 **Avice Greyson (13)**

 **Elizabeth Greyson (16)**

 **Roxanna Petit (13)**

 **Oni Hakuryù (10)**

 **Vermilya Hayashi (15)**

 **Levant (16)**

 **Takuma Kita (16)**

 **So, with all of this out of the way, the first chapter is going to be a little of a plot and backstory dump, but there IS a duel near the end, so... Good luck until then.**

* * *

"Third Squad, report!" A security officer shouted at his radio.

"Squad Five has eyes on the suspect in district Seven A!" another officer joined in.

"Send nearby squads to block the district, make sure no one gets away!" Captain Denver ordered them. "Also call a car to come and take me, I want to personally arrest that scum!"

"Already done sir!" The second officer replied and gestured toward the stairs that leaded out of the watch tower on which they were stationed.

Captain Denver nodded and headed down the stairs, the dazzling lights of the police car's sirens flashing through the darkness of the night, just like a lighthouse that illuminated a sailor's way to safety. Given the things that he had to see in the last few weeks that might not be an exaggeration.

Denver stepped inside and closed the door before ordering the other officer to driver off with a single hand gesture. As the car passed through the empty death streets, the captain looked out of the window, his mind drifting out in thoughts while his eyes stared at the dark shadows of the huge factories of Valt Evernon. It made him wonder why he accepted to be stationed in that cursed collection of half collapsed buildings and metallic factories. Not as much of a town as a place for the most desperate people to come and earn some minimal wage in hopes that one day they would be able to raise in positions and get a better job or be moved to work in one of the bigger town.

But Denver had always known that there was something strange about Valt Evernon, something… evil. This place, the huge black clouds that concealed the sun during the daytime and the unbearable smell that filled the air had a strange way to destroy any and all hope of their inhabitants, transforming them either into empty shells forsaken to only work surrounded by the poisonous gasses of the giant factories until the day their tormented souls are given a final rest, or the most twisted of criminals, true monsters with no remorse of sympathy.

"Is something of matter?" The officer's words' caught Denver's attention and returned his mind back to the present. He looked back at the driver and shook his head.

"No, I just thought… They slipped away from us for so long, it's good that we are finally going to catch them." Denver said and looked forward. Familiar blue and red lights came into view not too far ahead with a helicopter flying over the streets, illuminating the empty buildings and walkways.

The car came to a stop and Denver stepped outside, immediately being greeted by a group of officers that stood next to their cars, which were parked sideway next to the multiple Gate Blockers that they used to, well, block the street. He walked toward them and looked over at the buildings illuminated by the helicopter that flew above him. Broken windows, a streetlight that collapsed backward onto the wall of a long abandoned shop. These ghostly sights were nothing new for anyone who had spent more than two days in Valt Evernon, many of the workers and even Security preferred emptiness in comparison to the drug addicts and murders that viewed this abandoned by God place as a safe haven.

"Suspect is on the run on the subways in area Q-STAH-Seven-One-Three!" Denver's expression hardened after hearing the radio's announcement. The nearest exit from the subway that the suspect could try to escape through would be through this exact street.

"Everyone in position!" Denver ordered his men. In just a moment, everyone moved one, some pulled out their guns while the rest pulled out their Duel Disks and summoned either an Assault Dog, Doppelwarrior or whatever these new security decks had inside of them.

It didn't matter, really. They were trained in using them and so far, arresting criminals through dueling ended up being easier than with guns, thanks to the Real Solid Vision of course. But despite all of that, that threat which Security had trouble catching for a few weeks proved that the dueling taught in the Academia wasn't always enough. And they did it in the worst possible way. No one could say what or how it happened, but many officers were already filling the beds in the central, all of which had fallen in some sort of coma.

"It's coming back! Look out! Look ou-! Hhyyyaaaaa!" An eye piercing scream came from the radios causing every Security officer in radios to grab their ears in pain while the street before their blockade suddenly collapsed. Denver recovered before any of his colleague and pulled out his gun, aiming it at the rather impressive hole, ready to shot if the thing that came out of there was hostile. He had no idea how right he was.

Raising itself with a powerful roar, Van'Dalgyon the Dark Dragon Lord flew above the Security's barricade and fired a fireball at one of the Gate Blockers, obliterating it along with the car that was parked behind in, causing a chain reaction of explosions that threw Security's positions in complete disarray. Officers caught in the explosions were lying on the ground, screaming in agony, some went to help the injured while others could just stare at the dark dragon that stood before them. Only Devent was able to keep a clear mind through that nightmare. He put his gun away, knowing full well that something like that could do no damage to a being summoned with Real Solid Vision. He pulled out his Duel Disk and prepared to face it.

"You are surrounded! Come out with your arms where we can see them!" More security officers showed from the sides, some aiming their guns at the hole where the one that called for the dragon must be hiding, while others quickly summoned their own monsters, Goyo Predators, Blaze Fenix, the Burning Bombardment Bird and other creatures that were too much to name all came in to surround the rogue beast.

Denver breathed in slight relief, with reinforcements already there, he leaned back and put a hand over his chest. It was over. Or so he wanted to believe, despite all of the noise and voices, he could make out the faint sound of a motorbike that was becoming louder and louder with each passing moment. And then… More screams followed by a distinctive purple flame that engulfed those unfortunate enough to stay in the raider's path for too long. Passing between the remaining security officers like a flash, a rather old-looking motorbike jumped over the barrier and landed on the other side with Dragonecro Nethersoul Dragon following behind the rider whose features were hidden by an all-black outfit and a helmet.

"Another one…" Denver gritted his teeth and turned toward his remaining men. "Don't let them escape!"

Just for the tame it took Denver to give these orders, another person wearing a black cloak climbed from the hole and sat on the back of the motorbike which then turned around and drove straight toward the Captain himself. The two dragons raised their heads and fired their attacks, destroying more cars. Denver gritted his teeth and jumped out of the way before the biker could hit him. He pulled out his gun once again and immediately turned back to shot, but the only thing that came in sight was the darkness of the night. There was no sight of the attackers, as if they were engulfed into the shadows.

"Damn it!" Denver cursed and slammed his fist into the ground. Another failed operation, another group of his men to be hospitalized and another night in which these… These monsters would roam freely through Valt Evernon.

As the remaining officers ran to help their comrades, the captain was able to get a clear view of one that was hit by Dragonecro's flames. He looked death, there were no wounds on his body, but the lifeless eyes, sickly pale complexion and motionless said else, the only thing that different him from a corpse was the faint raising and falling of his chest. Denver raised his eyes and looked at the dark abyss that was the night sky, million thoughts racing through his mind. Who were these people? Why were they doing this? What went wrong with this operation? But far more importantly than that…

Was there anything that could stop that madness?

* * *

"So, where was the send-off party going to be?" a girl in the company of her two friends asked the one that was still seated onto his school desk.

The girl had long, untied red hair with blue highlights on the back and a pair of purple eyes. Her attire consisted of a closed grey hoodie with the number '61' written on the back, black sweatpants and blue converse sneakers. Her name was Vermilya.

Standing at her right was a boy named Draco. His hair was dual-colored, red at the front and orange at the back, pointing upward like flames, somewhat matching with his orange eyes. The boy's outfit consistent of a red shirt with a black unbuttoned vest over it, blue pants and red shoes.

At Vermilya's left side stood Levant, a rather tall sixteen years old with light grey hair that laid flat and had greenish-blue highlights at the front. His eyes were greenish-blue eyes and he wore a grey hoodie with white front, white pants and sneakers of the same color.

"Hmm?" The boy that was sitting down lazily moved his crimson eyes from whiteboard to look at the trio that stood in front of him. He was overtaken by his own thoughts and didn't notice them approaching until Vermilya spoke up. Unlike them, he wasn't excited about the upcoming party. Not even a bit. And why should he?

"At home. None of the restaurants we talked with wanted to host a party for a bunch of teenagers without any adults." It was a hassle enough that he had to host the party inside his own house and act as their moral compass for the night. He really didn't know how popular students were able to always host parties without worry about any of that, of course most of them did it in discotheques, but that was out of the question for him. Dark forces that he would rather not deal with today loamed above these places.

All three of the boy's friends smiled a little bit at his lack of enthusiasm. "Come on dude, don't get all gloomy today!" Draco said, putting a hand on the boy's shoulder, effectively earning himself a glare from the latter's crimson eyes.

"I'm not gloomy." The boy sighed and stood up. He took his two notebooks of the desk and put them into his school bag. This intrigued his friends a bit, they knew that he had two notebooks out during every class, one of them was used to write down notes and such while the content and purpose of the second one were a mystery, he never let anyone see what was inside, even did his best to hid it from curious eyes. All of that only added to the mystery of that secret notebook.

"I simply had other thoughts on my head and because of you dummies I forgot about them." The boy explained and looked at his friends with a smirk.

That was Evan Greyson, a boy that had white hair with red edges and five bangs on the right side of my face, three of which swept upward and to the right side of his head while the other two at the left. His outfit consisted of a simple white dress shirt with the top three buttons unfasten to show his neck, which had a red and black leather choker around it, and a bit of his chest. The rest of his outfit was rather formal as well with black dress pants and matching shoes. In most ways he looked like a normal everyday high-school student, but what made this one stood out was his rather pale skin and his sharp, shark-like teeth.

No one was sure what was up with those strange features, many thought that he was wearing fake vampire teeth while others thought that it might be connected to his bloodline. The Greyson family was a complete mysteries for the locals, it consisted only of three known members, Evan and his two sisters named Elizabeth and Avice. Strangely enough, the brother was the only one to show such strange features. No records were found about their origins and who the parents could have been was a mystery as well.

All that people knew about them was their home, the mansion of Joseph Fuller - a rick Englishman with a strange interest in the abnormal, people who had the honor to enter his home as guest had told about his huge collection of books about the supernatural. Unfortunately the good man was never able to have an heir, all of his children had died of measles back in the eighties. In fact, Joseph himself had admitted at many occasions that he was going to be the last Fuller. It came as surprise to everyone when, after his death two years ago, in his will he wanted the Greyson family to inherit everything owned by the Fuller family, including his mansion, but especially, and most importantly according to Joseph's will, all of his books about the supernatural.

"But be honest, aren't you proud with your sister just a little bit?" Draco asked Evan as the group made their way through the empty school corridors. Classes have ended for the day and as that suggest, most other students had already left the building, only these who had club activities were remaining behind.

"Being accepted in a university at the age of sixteen is quite the something, isn't it?" Vermilya leaned her head back and looked up at the ceiling. "It's not just some university either, it's Silver Valley University, the one with a hundred percent employment rate! I will be honest with you guys, I'm so jealous of Elizabeth right now!"

"Don't be, in order to be accepted for the program itself, you must be an honor student first." Levant explained and put his hands into the hoodie. "To think that our Elizabeth was the one approved of the six hundred that applied for the program is quite the thing."

"It's not so surprising. After all, this my sister that we are talking about here." Evan replied with a sigh. Of course, he was happy for his sister's success, but Silver Valley University was nowhere near where they lived, so she would have to find a lodging and he won't be seeing her as often anymore. While he didn't like the idea of being separated from any of his sisters, Evan couldn't say that he felt sad or anything like that. Not even for a bit. He simply didn't like it because it messed up with his own plans.

"At least she doesn't suffer of the same problem as you when it comes to studying." Levant said, staring to get a little annoyed with Evan's attitude.

"Problem?" Evan glanced at the boy, then smugly ran a hand through his white and red hair. "Last time I checked, being as handsome as me isn't connected to any problems with studying."

"You know what I mean by that." Levant retorted. "You got excellent grades as well, in fact, you are a born winner, and there is nothing that you even had problems with accomplishing, yet you don't put your skills where you should! Outside of high school marks, you have no academic achievement. The only reason why you are on third place when it comes to academic abilities is your lack of motivation, which, as far as I know, is the main quality for an honor student."

"Wait, what do you mean by 'third'?" Evan turned back to look Levant in the eyes. "Who is better than me in this school, expect for my sister?"

"The student council president." Levant deadpanned. "She doesn't seem to have much of a motivation either, but unlike you she takes part in clubs, cultural activities and is the student council president."

Evan blinked a few times. The Greyson moved his hands and put then on the sides of Levant's shoulders, holding the taller boy in place while his crimson eyes stared blankly into greenish-blue ones. Vermilya and Draco stopped in their tracks as well and turned back to look at their friends, wondering what was going on.

"This school has a student council?" The amount of sheer confusion in Evan's voice was alone enough to force Levant into face palming so hard, as to tear a hole through his own skull.

"Just how out of touch can you possibly be?" Levant asked, puzzled by Evan's apparent lack of basic knowledge about the school where he spent his whole student life.

"No… It doesn't really matter." Evan shook his head violently and stepped back, letting go of Levant's shoulders. "I will be off now, Avice and Roxy were going to wait for me to pick them up at the mall, so I got to hurry up now."

Before Levant or any of his other friends could retort, Evan turned around and ran toward the exit. The trio looked at each other in confusion, unsure of whenever the Greyson really had to pick up anybody, or he just said it as an excuse to run away before they started making fun of him for not knowing that there was a student council in their school.

"The party starts at eight, right?" Vermilya shouted after the boy.

"Eight and a half!" Evan shouted back before he turned a corner and disappeared from their view.

"So… I take it that Vermilya is the one who's going to tell Takuma about the change?" Draco suggested.

"Why me?" Vermilya protested.

"Because you are both part of the 'Gear Squad'?" The girl narrowed her eyes at Draco's poor joke. She was indeed part of that so called 'Gear Squad', but little did the fire-haired boy know about how serious of a deal that position was.

"What about you, Levant?" Vermilya turned toward the tall guy, almost in desperation to avoid that responsibility. "Why don't you call Takuma and tell him?"

"I can't. Today I got a lot of things to deal with at the student council." Levant sighed. He did want to help Vermilya out, but couldn't do so today. She and Takuma always had a rough relationship, he often got on her nerves just for fun and she often ended up getting in big trouble, both because of her own short temper and his constant teasing and joking. As a result of that, she naturally began to avoid him as much as possible, something that wasn't too hard to do since he rarely showed up anyways.

"You people are so mean!" Vermilya's shoulders dropped as tears began to fall down her cheeks like fountains. The two boys looked at each other and then breathed out softly.

* * *

Evan took a deep breath and looked at the blue sky. The city of Easthaven was as beautiful as ever with the sun hovering warmly above it and its citizens. The large skyscrapers that hide most of the smaller buildings were standing proudly, casting plenty of shade over the citizens to help them get along with the rather warm weather.

Standing out from that magnificent city was its school, the Westview Advanced Secondary School, which was located on its own district, a human-made river island, surrounded by a river that divided the large metropolis in two parts. A prototype for new schools, Westview functionate as a small city itself with a mall, public spheres and dormitories where students could stay if they so wish. It was a place meant to nurture its students about the world that awaits them after they finish their education. Exactly on that small island was where that weird group of friends spent their entire school life and got to know one other so well.

Currently, Evan was sitting a café next to the mall waiting for his sister and their friend to come out. The boy narrowed his eyes, the sun was shining too brightly, making it impossible for him to see his phone's screen. The trouble that this warm day was causing him only served to prove his personal view that rainy days were much better and far more enjoyable.

"So much about this then." Evan muttered and put his phone back into the pocket. He looked around the plaza, it was where many of the students came after classes or in-between them. There were several small cafes like the one he was sitting at the moment and almost all of them were filled with students and young teachers who had come to rest from their stressful day at school. Groups from certain clubs had gathered there as well.

For instance, the students from the literature club sitting on the benches near the small trees that were put there for decoration. The skaters were there as well, next to the fountains, chatting and trying out some new tricks. The school grounds were indeed filled with various people and colorful personalities. They were all so troublesome at times…

Then, something he noticed from the corner of his eyes caught Evan's attention. It was nothing special, just a simple shop that you could find anywhere in the city. But when the slide door opened and a girl walked out of it, his attention quickly focused on her. The girl had long vibrant black hair that flowed just past waist level with golden eyes. She wore a green jacket with matching miniskirt, black thigh highs and round shaped black shoes. The unknown girl had an athletic build and appeared to be younger than Evan, but he didn't care so much about her appearance as for her expression. It was stoic, blank, without any strong emotions on it. In fact, it appeared like there were no emotions at all.

Then there were the things that she carried in her bag, shampoo, soap. There was food as well with French bread and other things that he couldn't see. But the bag wasn't completely filled up, so the girl hadn't brought much. Judging by the choices she had made for shampoo and soap, the girl was going for the cheapest choices.

The students of Westview Advanced Secondary School were given a special currency called riel. Its value was different than that the regular money, with 1 riel being worth 20% less than the national currency. In addition to that, everything within the school ground was put at a cheaper price tag and so the students were encouraged to buy their products from within the territory of the school's complex instead of the rest of the city. But there was a catch to it, as it would be with a real work, the money that a student is 'paid' a month depends on their academic achievement and school marks.

Since Evan had high marks, but didn't take part in any school activities, he was earning 65% of what's possible to get. Many students that were living within the city were lucky enough to get extra financial support from their parents, but the number of those who have come from other towns wasn't insignificant either, because of that for many of them earning higher 'payment' was a priority in order to have average living conditions.

And that brought Evan back to the girl he was observing. She was buying the cheapest of the products available which meant that she was either someone with low school marks, or smart enough to know that it's not worth throwing away extra money for something because it looks shinier than other versions of the same product. Her clothes gave away that it was the second.

Evan had seen similar outfits being sold at the mall and thought they weren't the cheapest clothes at the stores, they weren't too expensive either. Also, the colors haven't started fading away, so that means the clothes she was wearing weren't washed very often, but there was also no right, so she must have brought them recently.

"Is there something you want?" The question snapped Evan back to reality and he noticed that the girl he was observing was now staring back at him. Her expression was still stoic but the Greyson could finally read an emotion on it. It was annoyance.

"Huh?" Evan leaned into his chair, taken aback by the question. There were several things that he wanted like new parts for his D-Wheel, someone to make his bedroom door stop creaking, but he doubted that she could grant him either of these two. "No, nothing of that sort. What made you think so?"

"You were staring at me." The girl looked on at him with her stoic expression.

"I just noticed that you had a rather cheap lineup in there." Evan stated calmly and pointed lazily at the plastic bag. "I thought that you are either an idiot with bad grades or someone with moderate sense of how to spend their money. But now I know that it's the later."

"Oh?" The girl's right eyebrow raised even so slightly, but she wouldn't admit that she was curious about how he found that out.

"Yeah, if you were just poor as I originally assumed, your voice wouldn't sound so bold and arrogant." Evan explained his logic to her. A poor person would be far more self-conscious and a more timid voice. That was how he saw it at least.

"Don't assume you know anything about people or that they care what you think about them." The girl told him and then turned on her heels, continuing down her original path.

' _But doesn't the way you immediately tried to decline my point of view as false mean that you are trying to deny the truth?'_ Evan thought to himself and turned back toward the table he was sitting on. Well, it didn't matter much, he probably won't be seeing that girl ever again and even if fate choose to play games with him, all he would have to do would be ignoring her.

"That was a charming conversation that you had there." A new voice added causing Evan to turn his head toward the direction of the mall. Walking toward him were two girls, both 13 years old with the one that spoke up standing a few inches taller than the other.

"It was anything but charming." Evan replied drily and leaned back into his chair while the girls took their own seats around the table and put the bags they were holding on the ground.

The one that sat against Evan, and was also the taller of the two, was his sister- Avice. The girl had short white and green hair with the lower back part jutting upward like four spikes, while the front was swiped to the sides as to not get in the way of her green eyes. There was also an ahoge on top of her head. She had the most carefree look among the people that Evan associates himself with, wearing a white, short sleeved blouse, short jeans, white socks and black sneakers.

"Don't be like that, the girl seemed to have felt insulted after your conversation." The second girl pouted, prompting both Greysons to turn their attention toward her.

That was Roxy, Elizabeth's best friend who came to friend with them a few years ago and was now a student in Westview Advanced Secondary School.

The girl had a tanned skin and short Alice blue hair with two amber locks falling down the middle of her forehead, one more at each side of her head and an ahoge of the same color on the top. Her outfit consisted of an aqua blue shirt with a white collar, pink stripes on his shoulders and matching pockets at the sides of her waist, short sleeves with purple cuffs and a horizontal purple stripe going down his chest. Below that was a knee level skirt with pink and yellow stripes, white knee socks and blue flat shoes with pink bows on the front. In addition to that, the girl had a golden collar decorated with pink jewels, a similar golden bracelet on her right hand and a fingerless black glove that reached her elbow on the left.

"I doubt it." Was Evan's only reply to Roxy. He doubted that the girl cared all that much about his opinion. "What's in these bags anyways? Did you get something for me as well?"

Avice chuckled a little at the question and put her hand on top of a bag, pulling it closer to her chair. "Unless you like dressing up in girl clothes, I doubt anything here will interest you. Since Eli's going to be moving, Roxy figured out that getting her some necessaries for the new place would be a nice gift for goodbye."

"I see." Evan sighed, buying gifts was annoying, but he completely forget to get Elizabeth something as well. Today was also Friday so shops tended to close up earlier on this day, he would have to think of something quickly.

"You haven't brought her anything, have you?" Roxy asked the boy, but he didn't respond. "You really forgot about your own sister, didn't you?"

"Enough of that." Avice said calmly and waved a hand in front of Roxy, surprisingly, that caused the girl to actually hush her. "It's no big deal, I know that you are often busy with researches and other troublesome work, so I already brought something for you to give her." Saying that, Avice pulled a smaller bag from the one she was holding close to the chair and handled it to him. "Believe me, she's going to love this one the most."

"I will keep that in mind." Evan nodded and put the bag in front of himself. "There were no freaks to hunt down this week either, it's starting to get extremely boring for me."

"Same here." Avice replied. The little Greyson leaned her head against the palm of her hand and stared at her older brother with a dreamy expression. "But I caught rumors about some things happening in Valt Evernon."

"That industrial area near the sea?" Evan asked for confirmation.

"Yes, but rumors are rumors, you can't trust them around ninety percent of the time." Avice informed her brother.

"Hmm, we could do some research about it on our own, couldn't we?" Evan suggested, crossing his arms. "What else are we going to do during the weekend?"

"Um, relax and not go after possibly dangerous individuals, putting our own safety on the line for a bit of adrenaline?" Roxy gave a suggestion, sounding more timid that when she scolded Evan a bit earlier. She knew how much the siblings loved to get into dangerous situations, a trait that she thankfully didn't share with them.

"Um, no?" Both Greysons deadpanned, then Avice went to further elaborate on their decision. "This is about much more than adrenaline. We might not know much, but if there are rumors then at the center of the stays either a lie, someone extremely skilled, or a supernatural force. And guest which one is it according to Sola."

"Sola, huh?" Roxy sighed and rested her head against the flat table. "So your _Duel Spirit_ told you that? I wonder why all of my cards remain just normal cards and never talk to me."

"Hehe~! This takes a special skill my dear." Avice stood up from her chair and walked over to Roxy, petting the girl on the head.

"It's getting close to afternoon." Evan took out his phone and showed it to the girls, although because of the sun it was hard to see anything. "We should get home and prepare ourselves for tonight's party. Elizabeth would also get worried if we don't get back in time."

"Then I'm riding on the D-Wheel!" Avice raised her hand eagerly.

"Not with those bags." Evan pointed out, gesturing toward the ones she brought. "And you can't let Roxy carry everything either. So, in other words, you are taking the bus."

"Aw!" Avice pouted, but she understood her brother.

It wasn't like he didn't want her on his D-Wheel, quite the opposite actually, he loved to drive her around, but they both knew that there was a time and place for everything. Today would be the last time they will get to be with Elizabeth for a while to come. With everything said between them for the moment, the Greysons and Roxy all nodded to each and stood up, leaving down their own paths.

* * *

The night hour fast approached, the end of yet another week. The city of Easthaven was filled with lights, the lively atmosphere only increasing after the golden sun set down and the silver moon replaced it. The same true for the Fuller Mansion, the lights shone brightly through its windows and music could be heard from within it. But despite this being a teenagers' party, it wasn't as wild as one would expect. The music itself wasn't loud, allowing the friends to easily talk with each other and there was almost no real alcohol among the drinks.

Today was when they were going to say goodbye to one of their own, so they wanted to spend that beautiful night telling each other the things they weren't able to say before. Their chatting often consisted of small stories with smiles and laughter following soon after.

The group was inside the guestroom, most of them standing up instead of sitting around the circular table that Evan brought for occasions like this one. The whole mansion, had a strong 18th century feel to it with elegant wooden chairs and tables, snow white curtains on all of the windows whose frames were decorated with gold. A large crystal chandelier hung from the similarly ornamented white ceiling.

But back to the group, this time there were three new members among them. The first one was a tall boy with long blue hair that was tied into a ponytail and had lightning-shaped yellow bangs that juts upward. His outfit consisted of an open long-sleeved brown and worn out jacket with a high collar, a simple black shirt with a drawing of a D-Wheel underneath. Worn out jeans and calf-high motorcycle boots finished his appearance. That was Takuma, Vermilya's life long bully, but also an incredible friend when needed.

Next, standing between Roxy and Draco was a little girl, probably not more than 10 years old with long pale-pink hair tied into pigtails that reach her lower back and eyes of the same color. She was wearing a light purple jacket with yellow smiling face on the left side and high collar that reached her cheeks, also the large sleeves this cloth had totally didn't match her small body. Underneath that the girl wore a black shirt and blue shorts with a black belt over it. She also wore black sneakers over pink and purple stripped socks that almost reached her shorts. The girl's name was Oni, an orphan that Elizabeth found searching for food in an alley on day. Being the most kind-hearted of the Greysons, she of course took the little girl to live in the mansion where she occasionally serve as a domestic servant, helping out the siblings.

And last, was of course the person for whom the whole party was organized in the first place, Elizabeth Greyson. As Evan's younger twin sister, she shared the same height as him as well as some facial features, thankfully neither of these were his shark-like teeth or the extremely pale skin. Her hair was short and mostly black with blue locks at the ends and two pointy locks on the left side of her fringe, right above her oceanic blue eyes. Elizabeth's outfit consisted of bluish-white jacket with pink pads on the shoulders, a bluish-grey jumpsuit underneath, and white boots that reach up to her knees. She also had a purple belt with a golden button in the center and what seemed to be a deck holder resting against her right hip.

"You know Eli, it's sad that we got to say goodbye to you just two weeks before school ended." Vermilya told her friend. She was upset because beside herself, Elizabeth was the only one in their group that she could talk with about more girly stuff.

"Yeah, I didn't know that being an honor student had this kind of upsides." Draco nodded his head, agreeing with Vermilya. "The school let you graduate three weeks before everyone else!"

"You can say that I deserved it, if one of the best universities in the country wants me to enroll this fall." Elizabeth smiled and took her glass of lemonade in hand. "But seriously, I won't be gone forever. University doesn't begin until October, so I'm going to come and see you during the summer vacation!"

"I really don't understand!" Roxy pouted and leaned her head against Elizabeth's side. "Can't you rent a lodgings during the fall?"

"That's not a good idea." Levant spoke up, rubbing his finger against the edge of glass, which was filled with wine. "Others might rent all available places before her. I also did my own research and found that prices fall during the summer and winter season. It helps drawing more tourists."

"Even so…" Takuma was next to speak up, but the sudden pause was what caught the others' interest. They knew that he wasn't one to be hesitant with words, always speaking up his mind, even if it could insult them.

"I don't think that taking Oni with yourself is a good idea. She's a little kid, taking care of both her and yourself might be just outside your abilities."

Everyone else glanced at one another nervously. Unsurprisingly, they all agreed with what Takuma said. Even if she was accepted in a university, Elizabeth was still a teenager, and like most teenagers, she wasn't used to such responsibilities. Only Oni herself didn't understand why that made everyone go silent, but now they were giving her a chance to shine. She wasn't going to waste it.

"Don't worry!" The little girl shouted to make sure they could all hear her. "Oni can take care of both herself and big sister!"

Momently, the whole room burst in laughter once again, surprising the little girl that looked curiously at everyone. Was something that she said which made them laugh? She didn't know, but it made her feel like she accomplished something and that feeling filled her chest with a strange form of pride.

"Since Oni's so skillful, why don't we ask her to teach Vermilya how to drive a D-Wheel then?" Takuma asked jokingly.

"Hey!" The girl in question turned and pushed Takuma hard on the shoulder while a small blush covered her face. "Driving a D-Wheel and dueling on it isn't as easy as you guys make it seem!"

"But you failed the exam three times already!" Draco added, earning himself a push in the shoulder as well. "Ouch! I'm sorry, ok!"

Levant watched the two boys teasing Vermilya silently at the side before turned his eyes toward the rest of the room. Exanimating it, he noticed an important detail that somehow everyone else seemed to have missed as well. Naturally, he just had to address the elephant in the room.

"Where are Evan and Avice?" Everyone else was in the room, but the oldest and youngest Greysons were missing. He remembered them being with everyone else at the beginning of the party, Avice even gave her gifts alongside Proxy, so when did they left?

"Don't worry." Elizabeth waved off the question and laughed, albeit bitterly. "They are down in the library. You know what Evan can be when it comes to listening to music that he isn't a fan of."

"What are do you by 'don't worry'?" Vermilya turned toward her. "It's common sense for siblings to stay together at moments like this!"

"Well, I'm already used to being the third wheel, so…" Elizabeth looked down bitterly. She was used to her own siblings staying away from her, they never answer why they don't like her and though she was trying her hardest not to mind it too much… It still hurt. It hurt so much to know that she was unwanted by the only family she had.

Levant sighed. He was used to seeing the family separated like that as well, it was starting to bother him a little bit. "I will go see what they are doing."

No one else said anything on the subject. Everything only silently followed Levant's movement from the corner of their eyes until he left the room, but even after he was no longer there, the lively chatter that was once didn't return. Levant stopped in the hall where the front door was located. At his left were the stairs that leaded toward the second floor and next to them was a small door that was left half open with lights coming out of it. So they were still inside…

Levant opened the door completely and stepped onto the stairs that were leading downward. For reasons unknown, the previous owner of the mansion had chosen to build the library underground. Was he trying to protect it from prying eyes, or was it just mindless paranoia that drove him to do that? It just didn't matter, the man was death and the place was as safe as he probably wanted it to be. Levant noticed cables showing from the old walls and sighed bitterly. When Evan first invited him to view the library, there was no electricity inside, so they had to install it by themselves. A hard and dangerous work, but it paid out nicely.

Continuing on, Levant finally noticed the end of the stairs and the light shining from within the room he was about to enter. There were no doors separating the library from the stairs, so he just walked into it. The first thing to come into his view were the shelves upon shelves filled with all sort of books, the stairs that lead toward the second floor of the library which was just as full as the first. If a newcomer was to see all of these books, they would think that there were all sort of things to read about there, but the truth was that more than eighty percent of the books in that library were about the supernatural. Researches, simple literature, it was a collection of horror material.

And of course, sitting at the old wooded table in the center of the room were Evan and Avice. The two Greysons were looking down at a book each, while they wrote something on their phones. It appeared that they were doing researches using both the knowledge inside this library and the internet.

"Your sister is sad that you aren't there with her." Levant said.

"She has you guys, so everything should be ok." Evan replied dismissively and kept looking at both the book and the phone. "What did you really come here for?"

Levant took a deep breath. Of course, there was no point trying to tiptoe the issue around with these two. When it came to Evan and Avice, they wanted you to either talk to them directly or not waste their time at all. The second option was also the more preferable one for them.

"There were strange incidents happening all around." Levant pulled one of the free chairs and sat down against Evan. The Greysons, in turn, put their phones down and looked at the boy before them, listening to what he had to say. "They were happening in different cities, people on the street don't seem too bothered about it, but I noticed the interesting detail that all the cities where these incidents have happened were around Valt Evernon."

The Greysons remained silent for a moment. Evan leaned forward and rested his hands on the table, putting his head on top of them. Valt Evernon – Levant was using the same name that Avice mentioned earlier that day, so the rumors must have been true. To an extent of course. Rumors were never a hundred percent true, even if they came from a reliable source.

"What sort of incidents are we talking about?" Avice asked.

"My knowledge is limited but victims usually end up in a coma. They are all found with lifeless eyes, pale skin and are completely motionless with just a faint pulse. No external or internal wounds, or anything in the vicinity that could leave them paralyzed. The doctors haven't been able to find anything related to a virus or an illness either. Then, exactly one week after entering that stage, the victims' hearts give up. They die."

"Pale skin and lifeless eyes?" Evan stood up from his chair and walked over to one of the many shelves inside that library. The boy took an old book and opened it, searching for something through the pages. While he did so, Levant used the opportunity to get a better look onto the book that Evan was reading before. The pages were still white and the edges were in perfect condition as well; it meant that the book he read was still new.

"Certain specimens from the Nosferatu kind have the tendency to feet from the same user several times by using a hypnosis that puts the victim in a trance. Since they don't have a reflection, security cameras won't catch them sneaking onto the patients. Plus, if a vampire is careful how and where they bite the doctors won't be able to find out until the victim is completely dry." Evan closed the book after explaining and put it back onto the shelf.

"There is something else." Levant added. "Witnesses say that they have saw what appeared to be Duel Monsters near the locations where the victims were discovered, so…"

"Their souls were stolen." Evan and Avice said in unison.

"If you get Duel Monsters involved then the cause is ninety nine percent a lost soul." Avice stated matter-of-factly and stood up from her chair as well. "This is in our specialty, so you probably want us to travel all the way to Valt Evernon and investigate it, right?"

"Actually, no." Levant sweat dropped. "I just wondered what you might think about it, if there is someone who steals souls, then we should probably go all as a team. You know, every one of us, including your sister."

Again, the siblings looked at each other. No words were needed for Avice and Evan to understand each other, seeing each other's eyes was enough for them to communicate with one another. The secret between their friendship with everyone else wasn't that they were students at the same school, oh no. It was because of their dueling skills that made every single one of them a feared opponent and the perfect force to keep an eye for any sort of dark presences that might lurk in the shadows of their bellowed city.

"Too bad, because we are going there for a two day investigation starting tomorrow!" Avice turned back to Levant with a grin and the boy already knew that there was no use trying to argue with them.

"If there's really something serious going on, contact us." Levant warned them. With this task finished, the boy stood up from his chair and turned around to leave, when he suddenly remembered about something. Words that were spoken just a few minutes ago resurfaced into his mind.

" _Well, I'm already used to being the third wheel, so…"_

It didn't have to be like that, he momentary realized. Siblings shouldn't separate themselves like that.

"You know, Elizabeth would be very happy to see you two on the party." Levant stated with his back turned toward the two siblings.

"We will join later." It was a simple response.

Evan and Avice both sat down onto their chairs like what Levant told them didn't matter at all and returned to what they were originally doing. The boy didn't even glance back at them as he walked back onto the stairs and left the room. At least he tried, so that counted as something.

Right?

* * *

"Everyone has already left, haven't they?" Evan looked at the empty mansion. Only the sound of water splashing came from within the kitchen. It was most likely Oni who was clearing the glasses and everything else.

The boy still looked around at the halls, Proxy and Avice had both gotten to sleep and his twin sister was the only one remaining. Currently, he was standing at her doorway, while she was finishing preparing her suitcases and an extra outfit was set on her bed. He deduced that it was the one she was going to put it on right after taking a bath. Although his attention was at the empty corridors, Evan glanced at his sister from the corner of his eye. She didn't seem to notice his presence, was she mad at him for spending this night doing research instead of participating in her party? He didn't really care about it either ways, but the silence was a bit unsettling.

Finally, the girl finished preparing her suitcase and turned to look at him. Ocean blue eyes meet with crimson red as the twins stared at each other. Unlike with Avice, Evan couldn't understand what Elizabeth was thinking and vice versa. It was like the two of them were complete strangers that had just meet for the first time.

"Do you require an apology from me?" Evan asked calmly. But Elizabeth didn't miss the tone with which he asked her, there was no real investment or regret from his side. Of course, knowing the darkness that resided within his soul she couldn't judge, but it painted her to know that her brother was heartless.

"There is no point in that." Elizabeth stood up and grabbed her suitcase, moving it over next to her bed.

Just then, two hands wrapped around her waist and pulled her back into an embrace. The girl's eyes widened even so slightly as her brother pressed his chest against her back and his lips against the back of her head. Elizabeth closed her eyes and focused. That was just like him, since he couldn't confront her as a brother his sister, he was trying to confront her as a boy would do toward a girl. She wasn't sure if this kind of attention should make her happy or disgusted, perhaps a little bit of both. Her shoulders dropped a bit and she relaxed into her brother's arms.

"Why do you hate me?" Elizabeth asked a simple question. Why did they always tried to drive her away? She couldn't even be angry with them because after every time, one of them would come and confront her like this, give her the fake feeling of being accepted, only for them to push her back down the next time. It was a never ending circle that she found herself unwilling to try and walk out of. Even if it hurt her soul, she wanted to be one of them.

"I got a gift for you." And of course, he avoided the question. Evan removed one of his arms and used it to take the gift from inside his pocket. Using the moment in which his hold was weakest, Elizabeth quickly turned her body around to face him and wrapped her arms around the back of his neck with a slight smile on her face.

Evan's eyes widened at the sight of his twin sister happy, but he grinned as well, showing his shark-like fangs a bit while his hand raised to show her a little black box that could fit in her palm. Elizabeth realized that it was a ring box.

"Truth be told, Avice was the one who brought it for me." Evan admitted and opened the box. Inside was a black ring with a single blue jewelry on the center; the same as her hair. "Both her and my Duel Spirits confirmed that this right would bright you a lot of luck if you wear it."

Elizabeth's lips curved into a big smile. She could hardly hold herself anymore, her face got slightly redder and she was going to burst in laughter due to how inappropriate and weird this situation was. Evan was such a dummy, he just couldn't read a situation, could he? Elizabeth pushed her face against her brother's chest and mutter her laughter.

After nearly a full minute of that, the girl raised her head and looked back into her brother's eyes with tears shinning inside her eyes "You are the worst." She said softly. "You are the worst human that I could have ever meet, so selfish and uncaring about others or their feelings. I despise you as a human being, but…" Elizabeth paused for a moment. She pulled her brother closer and rested her head against his shoulder with a satisfied smile on her face. "You did the best that you could do as a brother and I love you because of that. Even if you really hate me, I'm glad that I got you as my older brother."

' _Not a surprise.'_

The reaction was just what he expected out of Elizabeth, she cared for him and Avice too much to truly hate them, it was a troublesome situation for him, but until now it meant that he could require things from her without having to do anything in return. Just say sorry and hug her – she will follow you like a puppy the next day.

"Goodbye."

"Hmm?" Elizabeth peaked up to meet her brother's eyes again.

"I and Avice will be departing on a little adventure early in the morning, so I won't have the chance to properly part with you tomorrow." Evan explained with an almost happy tone. His smile hasn't dropped either, even as he was telling her farewell, it shinned brightly on his face.

"I see…" Elizabeth broke the embrace and pulled away from him. She looked down, knowing full well what he meant by 'a little adventure'. "You know what I'm going to tell you. Stay safe, both of you."

"Heh, don't we always?" Evan's smile turned more into a smug smirk and he turned on his heel, stepping toward the door. "Anyway, what was all I wanted to tell you. Good night!"

The door clapped loudly behind him, leaving Elizabeth alone in her room with the small box in her palm. She looked at the ring for a moment before putting it on her left right finger.

It fit perfectly.

A tear fell on the floor.

* * *

" _That was a rude way to say goodbye, master."_ The spirit of a teenager wolf girl with grey 'fur' float next to Evan, her tail swaying behind her while she moved through the air.

' _Shut up, Wolfy.'_ Evan clicked his fingers causing the spirit to grab her chest tightly as darkness began to spread through her body and she disappeared, getting forcefully returned to where she came from.

He didn't need anyone reading him a moral code, less than that his own spirits, which weren't even fond of humans. He never truly saw any reason why he should be kind to people, unless they had some sort of use, there was no point bothering with them. But of course, he lived in a society so a basic level of politeness was required. But Elizabeth was his sister, so she had to get used to it.

Evan walked into his bedroom and sat down on his bed with a loud sigh. His own room was simple, a bed with a nightstand on the left, a large window above it, and a closet, put against the wall next to the door. The boy remained silent for a while, observing the room that he had seen a thousand times before, he tried to empty his head of pointless thoughts and focus on more important matters. His mind went to Valt Evernon. That town – if it could even be called that – wasn't too far away from the city, it would be at half an hour with a car or a D-Wheel.

They also had no lead about these 'incidents' either, so Evan could just hope that their little journey wasn't going to be a complete waste of his weekend. He clicked his tongue and put his hands on his shirt, unbuttoning it. After finishing, the boy pulled the cloth off his back and threw it onto his bed, revealing his torso. While Evan was, in fact, rather skinny for his age, there was a light tone of muscle, but more attention drawing were the numerous scars around his body and arms. Most of them were small, although there were several large ones across his stomach and back with most prominent being the scar at the center of his chest - it was large and a few years old.

After removing his upper clothes, Evan kneeled down next to his bed and reached under it for a not-so-secret suitcase. He put it on top of his bed and unlocked it, his crimson eyes were fixed on it, while his arms slowly opened it to reveal the content. Was it a secret book? Some sort of magical weapon? And old deck that he swore to never put his hand onto again?

No, it wasn't either of these things. The all so precious content of the suitcase was just an old outfit that Evan had worn a thousand times before. So, what was so special about it? Was it a super hero outfit? Was it connected to a dark past that was better left hidden? Or perhaps the clothes had a curse put on them?

Incorrect again.

Truth was, Evan just liked that extra feeling of badassery when something popped out that gave him an excuse to put on his favorite outfit, and he pulled the suitcase hidden under his bed.

A silly thing to do, but he liked doing it.

"It's still like it used to be." Evan muttered and ran a hand through the black and red leather jacket inside the box. White fur the ends of its sleeves and the large hood which had a pair of cat ears resting on the top. Underneath the jacket was a white short sleeved shirt with black tiger stripes, a red belt and black pants with red stripes on the thighs. Finally, at the bottom of the suitcase, Evan found and the most important part, his Wrist Dealer. It was a metal gauntlet worn on the left arm that Duelists used as deck holder during Turbo Duels.

"Let's see…" Evan put the Wrist Dealer on, testing its feeling against his arm. He moved his wrist a little to make sure that it wouldn't get into the way of his movements. Having their Wrist Dealer feel uncomfortable was one of the many things that Turbo Duelists that didn't want to duel while concentrating on dueling or riding the D-Wheel.

"It first perfectly." Evan muttered under his breath and then removed it. He put the Wrist Dealer on his nightstand and returned everything else back into his suitcase. He hide it under his bed again and lied down on his bed and tried to get comfortable. Tomorrow was going to be a long side, so he had to be at his best, rested up and focused. Evan turned over and got adjusted, closing his crimson eyes, he let his body rest surrounded by the darkness of his bedroom.

* * *

The next day came and as the Greyson said, they departed for Valt Evernon with Evan's D-Wheel. Despite the many different models that were available out there, his was a more basic, streamlined model with a primary black paintjob with crimson wheelbases and on the front fairing.

At the moment, Evan was driving on a road above Valt Evernon itself. Avice, turned her head to look at the strange town, if she could call it that. True, the people that worked at the huge factories and facilities also lived there, but the place was built to serve more as an industrial area that a place to live. She observed as huge clouds of pitch black smoke raised from the chimneys into the sky and hid the sun away. The place looked so creepily from where they were standing with the colorless buildings that looked like they were about to collapse and all of the junk on the streets. It reminded Avice that Valt Evernon also functionate as a junkyard.

The only thing about this place that wasn't revolting was the view to the sea. The dazzling light of the sun shone through the blue surface, completely unaffected by the black clouds that hanged above the town itself. Avice's lips curved into a light smile at the sight, it was so distant, yet strangely relaxing. It made her feel like she could fall asleep from just watching it, thankfully she was smart enough to know that it wasn't a good idea to fall asleep while on a D-Wheel, even if she wasn't the rider.

"You know, the view isn't so bad from up here." Avice spoke cheerfully and leaned back while her arms were locked around her brother's waist.

"It probably will be better if we get closer." Evan replied. "If we got time, I promise to get you to see the sea from up close."

"Really!" Avice's face beamed with happiness. She knew that he was really going to do it, her brother had always spoiled her before and there was no reason for him to stop doing so now.

"If that's what you want. Of course." Evan nodded. But as he said before, only if they had the time for detours. He was unsure about how grand the whole soul stealing business truly issue and if two days would be enough for them to get anything.

"You are the best!" Avice told her brother, prompting him to smirk smugly.

The siblings passed the first few factories that marked that start of Valt Evernon and noticed the change in light almost immediately. Everything began darker, the smell of incinerated plastic and other substances flow through the air. The siblings looked around cautiously as they passed through the empty streets, no humans or small animals appeared on their way, giving the Greysons the vibe of a ghost town from the place.

"You there, stop immediately!" A loud voice called from behind. Avice turned her head to look at who said that while Evan kept riding.

"We got trouble." Avice told her brother. Following on a white and black D-Wheel behind them was an officer. "Should we stop and see what he wants?"

"Nah, there is ninety percent chance that the guy is holding a speeding ticket with my name on it." Evan replied and looked around, noticing an old, half collapsed tunnel. He suddenly hit the brakes and made a sharp turn toward the old infrastructure before accelerating toward it. "Let's try to lose this guy instead!"

"He's not giving up!" Avice warned as the officer turned his police sirens and followed after the black D-Wheel.

Evan gave a single glance at the officer and hit the brakes again, falling back until the two D-Wheels were next to one another. If running wasn't an option, then he would have to get rid of the officer in a different manner – through a duel!

"Stop and surround immediately!" the officer wasted no time in telling the siblings to surrender.

"I heard you the first time." Evan replied and looked at his chaser. "If you want me to stop, then why don't you duel me instead! If you win, we are going to surrender without causing any more trouble, deal?"

"As expected…" The officer muttered to himself and pressed a button on his D-Wheel, causing a robotic voice to announce:

"Field Spell: Speed World NEXT. Set on. Duel Mode: On! Autopilot: Standby!"

"Turbo Duel!" Evan and the Officer exclaimed.

 **『** **Evan LP: 4000 Hand: 5 (VS) Security LP: 4000 Hand: 5** **』**

A blade made from solid energy burst from both D-Wheels, creating the zones on which the duelists would put their cards. Evan narrowed his eyes and looked ahead, noticing that the tunnel has collapsed and there was a large hole on the left hole with railways on the other side. He knew for a fact that trains weren't moving through Valt Evernon for years, so…

"The one who gets on the railways first, gets to start!" Evan shouted.

The officer didn't respond to that, instead, he accelerated toward the railways, leaving Evan to follow him from behind on his regular speed. The Greyson rolled his eyes, it was so hard to trick his opponent into wanting to take the first move. Both duelists raised their D-Wheels to jump through the opening in the wall and landed on the other side, with the officer at the front of course.

"The first turn will be mine!" The officer said, drawing his five cards. "And because of Speed World NEXT's effect, we both get a Speed Counter right from the start!" A beeping sound turned Evan's attention to the purple screen of his crimson Duel Disk. It read - Speed Counters: 1. "I Normal Summon _Stygian Street Patrol (Lv.4, ATK: 1600)_ and set two cards, ending my turn!"

Evan observed his opponent's plays carefully. He knew for a fact that Security officers underwent a special dueling training and were more skilled than your regular duelist, so he expected more than that. But that setup, a single weak monster in attack position and two set cards, it was an obvious trap, but that wasn't going to stop him from attacking.

"Then it's my turn!" Evan drew his sixth card and put it on his Wrist Dealer.

 **『** **Turn 2 [Evan] LP: 4000 Hand: 6** **』**

 **『** **Evan's Speed Counters: 2/Security's Speed Counters: 2** **』**

"We are missing one piece." Avice informed her brother, staring at his cards from behind his shoulder. They needed one specific card for their winning formula to be finished, but it wasn't in their hand, yet.

"I know." Evan replied, not worried about that. He took a card and put it on the blade before him. "I Normal Summon _**ChronoDevil Summit Hornet**_!"

A portal opened and a large metallic hornet covered with golden platting appeared on the field. Its eyes flashed blue and its horn had a gear on it with two large clock arms coming from it, pointing to the sides.

* * *

 **ChronoDevil Summit Hornet**

 **Level: 3** **/** **Attribute:** **DARK FIRE/** **Type: Insect/Effect**

 **ATK: 1000/DEF: 500**

 **Effect: When this card is Normal Summoned** **,** **you can Normal Summon 1 DARK monster from your hand, as an additional Normal Summon. You can banish this card from your Graveyard, then target 2 face-up Spell or Trap cards on the field; return them to the hand.**

* * *

"What the?" The officer looked carefully at his screen. He pressed a button to zoom onto the monster that his opponent just summoned, but it wasn't a mistake, the small circle at right side of the name showed the colors and names of two attributes instead of just one like regular cards do!

"Now, I activate the effect of Summit Hornet! When it's summoned, I can Normal Summon again! Come out, **ChronoDevil Speedster**!" A second portal appeared and a humanoid in a dark brown suit of light armor jumped out of it. The monster had a breathing mask and goggles covering its face, two circular objects covered the back of its arms and instead of feet, it had wheels with tailpipes on its ankles.

* * *

 **Chrono** **Devil** **Speedster**

 **Level: 3/Attribute: DARK** **WIND** **/Type: Warrior/Effect**

 **ATK: 700/DEF: 1400**

 **Effect: If this card attacks, it's ATK becomes triple this card's original ATK** **until the end of** **the Damage Step. If this card is Special Summoned: Draw 1 card.**

* * *

"Two Level threes?" Avice looked at her brother curiously. She was wondering if he was going to go all out from the start. "Are you planning to Xyz Summon and lock down his set cards?"

"I'm interested in seeing what these security officers are all about." Evan replied. "Because of that I'm going to give them a chance to bite back."

The two ChronoDevil monsters turned back to look at Evan and silently nodded, knowing what was going to happen next. They slowed down to get behind the D-Wheel and then accelerated forward, jumping over the Greysons' heads; the monsters turned into whirlwinds of energy.

"Appear circuit of past and future!" Evan gestured forward and the square appeared before him, absorbing the two monsters. "Arrowheads confirmed! Summoning requirements are two ChronoDevil monsters! I set ChronoDevil Summit Hornet and ChronoDevil Speedster in the Link Markers! Link Summon! Here comes one of my favorite! The wild spirit dancing over fading ages! _**ChronoDevil Time Tamer Kitty**_!"

Out of the circuit jumped a neko girl with yellow eyes and long black hair tied into twin tails with large bells tied to them with blue ribbons. Two cat ears on top of her head and a long black tail with a white dot on the end were enough for people to figure out why her name was 'Kitty'. The monster had a red cloth tied around her neck like a scarf. She wore short, sleeveless brown vest that left her belly and shoulders revealed. Her fingernails were all colored red and she had a long black fingerless glove that reached to her elbow on her left arm. Underneath that she had a heavy belt wrapped loosely around her waist with a black skirt that was, very, very short and had bells tied to it. Finally, her outfit ended with black tight highs and dark brown boots that had a clock attached to the front. The neko girl held an old rifle in her arms as her weapon of choice.

* * *

 **Chrono** **Devil** **Time T** **a** **mer Kitty**

 **Attribute: DARK** **EARTH** **/Type:Beast-Warrior/Link/Effect**

 **L-Markers: Bottom-Left, Bottom-Right**

 **ATK:1700/LINK-2**

 **2 "** **ChronoDevil** **" monsters**

 **Effect: When this card is** **Link** **Summon** **ed** **, Special Summon 1 DARK monster from the GY. Once per turn (Quick Effect): If this card battles, you can make this card gain ATK equal to half the ATK of one monster it's linked to (until the end of this turn), and if you do, your opponent can't activate Trap Cards for the rest of the Battle Phase.**

* * *

"A Link Summon?!" The Security officer called out in disbelieve. Even though it made logic since there were only two Extra Monster Zones onto the field, it was the first time he had to face one outside of training simulations.

" _It's been so long!"_ Kitty meowed and stretched her arms. There was no need to worry about the security officer hearing her because humans weren't able to do so, unless they had a special connection to the spirits. _"Who am I going to snap today, master?"_

"I activate my monster's effect!" Evan declared and his monster aimed her weapon at the ceiling above them. "When Time Tamer Kitty is summoned, I can revive ChronoDevil Speedster!" The neko pulled the trigger of her weapon but instead of firing a bullet, a black vortex appeared before her and the aforementioned monster jumped out of it, landing next to Evan's side in attack position.

"And when Speedster is Special Summoned, we get to draw a card!" Avice explained the effect while Evan added another card to his hand. The girl saw a glimpse of the card that her brother drew by the effect and her eyes softly widened. "That's…"

"Next turn we win." Evan confirmed with a low mutter that only his sister could hear. He had collected all the pieces needed. "Now let's battle! ChronoDevil Speedster is going to attackStygian Street Patrol! Go!" The warrior's goggles glowed brightly and it dashed toward the demon.

"When Speedster attacks, his attack points get tripled!" A burning blue aura surrounded the warrior's body and it groaned loudly as its strength multiplied.

 **Chrono** **Devil** **Speedster** **, ATK: 700 * 3** → **2100**

Stygian Street Patrol turned around and fired at ChronoDevil Speedster, but the warrior managed to outrun and dodge all of the bullets before he jumped over and delivered a kick right into the monster's face, destroying it. The shockwave from the attack caused the security officer's D-Wheel to shake a little, but he managed to steady it and glared back at his opponent.

 **『** **Security LP: 4000 – 500** → **3500** **』**

"That kind of energy is too much to come from a simple level three monster!" The Security officer cried out. "What kind of cards are those?"

Evan's crimson eyes looked at the officer from behind the black visor of his red helmet and his lips curved into a smirk. "Those are cards of Darkness, they hold incredible power along with a powerful curse."

The security officer gasped at the bit of info that was provided to him. "A curse? What kind of,"

"Because the battle ended, Speedster's attack return back to normal." Evan cut him off and his monster slowed down so it was running next to the black D-Wheel.

 **Chrono** **Devil** **Speedster** **, ATK: 2100 / 3** → **700**

"But we are not done yet!" Avice gestured toward with her right hand. "Right, bro?"

Evan nodded in respond to his sister's question and gestured forward as well. "ChronoDevil Time Tamer Kitty is going to attack you directly! And when she battles, half the attack power of a monster she points to gets absorbed to power her up!"

"Before you do that, I'm going to activate my Trap, Shadow Spell!" The first of Security's Trap Cards flipped face up and several chains shot out of it, tying themselves tightly around the neko's body. "When this card's in play, your monster loses seven hundred attack and can't declare an attack!"

 **Chrono** **Devil** **Time Tamer Kitty, ATK: 1700 - 700** → **1000**

"That's just annoying!" the Duel Monster gritted her teeth and tried to break the chains, but to no avail – she was trapped. "I made such a grand debut only to be chain up like this is some sort of bondage session!"

"Not a bad move." Evan commented and took three cards from his Wrist Dealer, putting all of them onto the purple energy blade before him. "But are your traps better than mine? I set three cards and end my turn!"

"Traps, huh?" The Security officer looked at the three cards on his screen he was already prepared to deal with traps, but his opponent's words just confirmed his expectations. "You are going to be sorry for telling me that! My turn!"

 **『** **Turn 3 [Security] LP: 3500 Hand: 3** **』**

 **『** **Evan's Speed Counters: 3/Security's Speed Counters: 3** **』**

"Heh, nice!" The officer chuckled and pressed a button on his Duel Disk. "I activate the effect of Stygian Street Patrol in my Graveyard! I banish it to Special Summon another _Stygian Street Patrol (Lv.4, ATK: 1600)_ from my hand!" A second copy of the field appeared with a creepy chuckle. "Next, I Normal Summon _Stygian Security_ _(Lv.1, ATK: 100)_!" A small blue devil with wings on the side of its head and a red flash on the top appeared beside the other monster.

"Obvious Synchro Summon is obvious." Avice commented.

"I tune my Level One Stygian Security to my Level Four Stygian Street Patrol!" the officer shouted. His first monster turned into a green ring that flew around the second, which transformed into four balls of light. "Race your prey full throttle to the end of the world and capture it in the iron chains of law! Synchro Summon! _Stygian Sergeants (Lv.5, ATK: 2200)_!" A two headed demonic monster riding a bike appeared out of the light.

" _Is it me, or are these monsters more demonic looking than us?"_ Kitty asked out loud.

"Let's battle!" The officer cried out and his Synchro speeded toward Evan. "I attack ChronoDevil Speedster with my Stygian Sergeants!"

"I think not!" Evan cried out and pressed a button, activating one of his own set cards. "I play _**Time Shift**_! This trap negates an attack against my ChronoDevil and turns all of your monsters to defense position!"

* * *

 **Time Shift** **(** **Trap** **)** **Normal**

 **When your opponent declares an attack against a face-up "ChronoDevil"** **monster** **you control: Target that monster; negate the attack, then change to Defense Position all face-up monsters on the field with less than or equal ATK to the targeted monster's original ATK.**

* * *

"I expected so much!" The officer stated. "I play my own trap, _Trap Stun_! Until the end of this turn, all other traps are negated, including the one you just activated!"

The card that Evan had activated turned grey and then shattered, leaving the field. The duelist however, didn't seem concerned at all, even as the attack continued and his warrior got ran over. A loud cry escaped Speedster's throat as he got destroyed, but it seemed to have fallen into deaf ears since neither Evan, nor Avice seemed concerned about the spirit.

 **『** **Evan LP: 4000 – 1500** → **2500** **』**

 **『** **Evan's Speed Counters: 3** → **2** **』**

"But it's not over!" The security officer continued. "Stygian Sergeants destroys a monster by battle, it gains eight hundred extra attack and can attack you again! Destroy his other monster!" the two demon heads looked up and the beast-warrior and shot their flame breath at the neko.

 **Stygian Sergeants, ATK: 2200 + 800** → **3000**

" _Kyah!"_ Kitty cried out in pain, her body was set on fire and then destroyed with the resulting shockwave knocking Evan's D-Wheel off balance for a few moments.

 **『** **Evan LP: 2500 – 2000** → **500** **』**

 **『** **Evan's Speed Counters: 2** → **0** **』**

"I'm ending my turn there!" the officer finished, his monster's attack returning back to its original value of 2200. "It seems like you are going to get in handcuffs after all!"

Evan didn't seem to acknowledge his opponent's taunting, let alone retort back to it, his attention was completely drawn onto the cards on his Wrist Dealer. There were no set cards on the officer's field, he must be either too cocky, or he had already used all of the traps in his hand. It didn't matter either way.

He was going to win anyways, so there was no point in overthinking that stuff.

"It's my turn, I draw!" Evan stated, drawing once more.

 **『** **Turn 4 [Evan] LP: 500 Hand: 3** **』**

 **『** **Evan's Speed Counters: 1/Security's Speed Counters: 4** **』**

Evan didn't even glance at the card that he drew before he put it on his Wrist Dealer. He had collected all the pieces needed for victory was turn, so this draw was just a formality. Avice leaned against her brother's back and looked at the cards from over his shoulder. She tightened her grip and pressed her body harder against his.

"Let's do it!" She told him with a smile.

Evan nodded and took a card, swiping it across the purple blade. "When there are no monsters on my field, I can Special Summon _Unknown Synchron (Lv.1, ATK: 0)_ from my hand!" A small metal ball with a single red eye appeared before the D-Wheel. "Next, I Normal Summon _**ChronoDevil Starpulse Wyvern**_!"

A small purple dragon standing on its back legs appeared out of a portal and roared. Its wore clock gear ornaments on its ankles, knees, elbows and wrists, while its chest and neck were covered in brownish yellow scales with a green energy orb integrated in the center of the its chest. The dragon had a long tail which divided into two at the end and its wings were replaced by artificial ones made from yellow metal with fake purple patagia on them.

* * *

 **ChronoDevil Starpulse Wyvern**

 **Level:** **4** **/Attribute: DARK** **WIND** **/Type:** **Dragon** **/Effect**

 **ATK:** **19** **00/DEF: 1** **2** **00**

 **Effect: When this card is Summoned: You can target 1 face-up monster on the field; increase that target's Level by** **1 or** **2 until the end of this turn.**

* * *

"I activate Starpulse's effect! When it's summoned, I can increase a monster's level by two and of course, I choose Unknown Synchron!" The dragon flew over the machine and roared, giving it a green aura.

 **Unknown Synchron's Level: 1** → **3**

"Let's go!" Evan and Avice cried out together and their monsters flew in front of the D-Wheel. "I tune the Level Three Unknown Synchron to the Level Four Starpulse Wyvern!" The machine turned into three rings around the dragon and a beam of light enveloped the tunnel.

Evan's eyes began to glow and he started to chant. " _Fearsome beast breaking through the boundaries of time! Lead me toward the future! Synchro Summon! Level Seven!_ _ **ChronoDevil Mystic-Flare Dragon**_ _!_ "

A beam of light shot through the rings and a dragon flew out of it. The beast had a purple, slender body with its chest, arms and legs covered in golden armor and appearing to be artificial and made from the same material as its twin spiked long tail. The dragon had robotic wings and two long cannons sticking between them with long pipes connecting the weapons to the sides of its neck. The beast landed on its hind legs and I noticed the green cables attached to its limbs, generating its long claws. The same devices were placed and on its chest, connecting to the glowing orb in the center. Then its head, it had a long jaw filled with sharp teeth and had two falls of a clock gear attached to the side of its head like horns.

* * *

 **ChronoDevil Mystic-Flare Dragon**

 **Level: 7** **/** **Attribute:** **DARK FIRE/** **Type: Dragon/Synchro/Effect**

 **ATK: 2400/DEF: 1700**

 **Effect: If this card battles a monster whose ATK is equal to or less than the ATK of this card, you can destroy the monster immediately with this card's effect without applying damage calculation, and inflict damage to your opponent equal to that monster's ATK. If this card is sent from the field to the Graveyard: You can add 1 Spell/Trap card from your Deck to your hand.**

* * *

"A Synchro Summon at a time like this?" the officer looked over the strange cyborg dragon and gritted his teeth.

"Battle!" Evan accelerated his D-Wheel, easily passing around the officer with Mystic-Flare following behind him. "ChronoDevil Mystic-Flare Dragon attack Stygian Sergeants!"

Mystic-Flare Dragon leaned toward and aimed its cannons which started to charge green energy beams. Then it released the attack toward Stygian Sergeants which in turn prepared for the impact. The Security officer gritted his teeth; that was going to hurt a lot.

"At this moment I activate ChronoDevil Mystic-Flare Dragon's effect!" Evan continued on, his beam becoming bigger and more powerful. "If it battles a monster with lower or equal ATK I can automatically destroy that monster without Damage Calculation and inflict its ATK as damage! Time Nullify!"

The attack connected and the officer cried out as he was forced to take the full value of his own Synchro's attack value.

 **『** **Security LP: 3500 – 2200** → **1300** **』**

 **『** **Security's Speed Counters: 4** → **2** **』**

"Now, I activate my trap, _Dimension Gate_! This card lets me banish ChronoDevil Mystic-Flare Dragon!" Two rings flew out of Evan's card and enveloped his dragon, erasing it from the field.

"W-what?" The Security Officer looked confused. Why would someone banish their own monster like this? He felt like there was more to the boy's strategy and that was what worried him.

"I now activate my other trap, _Wild Tornado_ to destroy Dimension Gate!" Evan's continuous trap shattered in front of him. "Now the other effect of Dimension Gate activates! I Special Summon the monster that was banished by its effect! Revive, _ChronoDevil Mystic-Flare Dragon (Lv.7, ATK: 2400)_!"

"Impossible!" The officer gasped as Mystic-Flare Dragon flew in front of him and roared.

"Now for the finish!" Avice called out.

"ChronoDevil Mystic-Flare Dragon attacks you directly! Electro Storm!" The dragon aimed its cannons for one more attack and blasted the officer. His D-Wheel burst into a cloud of smoke and decelerated, fading into the distance as Evan drove forward at full speed.

 **『Security LP: 1300 - 2400** → **0** **』**

 **『Winner: Evan** **』**

"That was a nice one!" Avice grinned.

Evan kept his focus on the road, or the railway in that case. Surely, the officer was going to call for backup, so he had to escape the tunnel before any more cops showed up. Soon, light became visible at the end of the tunnel and the boy accelerated further. What was just a small dot in the distance began to grow in size and become more detailed. Evan could almost see what was outside!

Then, the familiar sound of police sirens echoed through the air once again. The Duelist pressed his brakes and turned the wheels, sliding sideways until he came to a full stop. Evan narrowed his eyes, standing in front of them was a barricade of police cars with security officers standing outside, aiming their guns at the siblings. The one he dueled before was behind them, so both sides for escape were blocked, there was no escape.

"Hold your hands where we can see them!" One of the officers shouted at them.

Evan glanced back at his sister waiting for her response. She nodded solemnly and both of them raised their arms in the air.

"Can I go for a speeding ticket instead?" Evan asked awkwardly.

* * *

 **So, I see that you are still alive. This concludes the first chapter of "Tales of Light and Darkness" and if you want to read more of it, then go ahead and click the "Follow" button to get notification when I update it. If not, then, please leave a review and let me know your thoughts. Hearing feedback from others is the best motivation for a writer and it also helps me with improving the writing.**


	2. The More We Change Part 2

**That chapter went a lot longer than I expected... I feel like long chapters will become a trend with this story because how much more enjoyment I have writting it compared to some of my other projects...**

 **Thanks to** CAD270895 **and** Starman 003 **for being the first to both follow and favorite this story, with thanks going also to** Zaconator and Zackis **for favoriting it and to** ThePLOThand **for following.**

 **Now a reponse to the review from last chapter!**

ThePLOThand **: What you said confuses me a bit because Destiny Gears was always supposed to be the sequal to Arc-Tracers and most likely my last main story with the Greysons in it. So even if there is a seventh YGO series and I choose to write a story about it, I'm most likely not going to include the Greysons in that one.**

 **There is going to be more than just these three types of duels. For instance, I'm planning to introduce a new game called "Duel Warfare" in the next few chapters. I'm just not sure if it's going to be in Chapter 3 or somewhere after that.**

 **And on the last comment about Evan... Well, I have to admit that he and Avice are the main reason why I think about changing this story's rating to M, but I will let you see for yourself first.**

 **Before we start the chapter though, I wanted to point out something that I forgot on my last A/N. It's probably obvious, but story's name is "Tales of Light and Darkness" instead of "Tale of Light and Darkness" so it's going to have a more episodic approch to the smaller stories told in this fanfiction.**

* * *

Evan leaned back against the old chair he was sitting onto with Avice right beside him and a metal table before them. He closed his eyes and focused, after getting caught be Security, the two of them were taken for interrogation and were put in this white room, which wasn't even soundproof. He could hear footsteps, several people running outside in a hurry along with some voices, but making out what they were saying was extremely hard with all the other sounds that came from outside the door. After taking it all in for a good minute, the boy opened his crimson eyes and looked back down to his wrist. The officers have done a good job putting handcuffs, they also took away his Wrist Dealer and deck, the latter of which could have made escaping from this facility easier than stealing sweets from a baby.

He sighed. This was the first time since he updated the AI of his D-Wheel that Security was able to catch him, thankfully not through defeating him in a duel as that would have made him want to commit suicide out of embarrassment.

Still, there was something off about how the Security behaved after managing to catch them. There existed something akin to a rule about officers not being allowed to confiscate a criminal's deck, unless it was connected to the crime committed. While it was true that he did use the deck to duel a Security officer, that wasn't viewed as a crime, so that leaded to two conclusions. Either the officers weren't following the protocol, or the so-called rumors about Valt Evernon were true to such a scale that even Security became to take away suspects' decks as security measures.

"Ah, such a bothersome experience." Evan thought out loud, catching his little sister's attention.

"They didn't even put us in a cell first, instead moved us straight to the interrogation room." Avice leaned her hands against the table in front of her and pouted. "Isn't it a little weird though. Valt Evernon has statically the highest amount of crime in the whole country, there must be a lot of cases for the Security to handle at the moment, and the hall which they moved us through was filled with suspects as well…"

"And yet they threw us into the interrogation room first, like we were top priority or something." Evan's 'this isn't exactly normal' senses were tingling, but his face didn't show to be worried about it. Perhaps, because he wasn't.

Neither was Avice. Overanalyzing things was something they tended to do on a regular basic when they faced a new situation. To them things that most other human beings would worry or be afraid about were irrelevant – emotionally hollow experiences as Avice would sometimes call them. Emotions such as fear were just the brain's response to a specific stimulus, or an expectation of a threat perceived as a risk to one's body or life. If one had enough experience, they could make their brain to ignore the perception of danger.

But in the end, it was all just the babbling of two fools, try to explain scientifically their own emotional hollowness. Such a pointless brain gymnastic…

Then, the metal door of the room opened and an officer walked inside. Unlike most other members of Security, who wore a pale grey uniform, the man that came into the room spotted a bluish-grey version of the outfit with a silver medal in the form of an up-pointing arrow was hanging from the left side of his chest. His hard facial features gave the man a look of extreme strictness. His hair was black and short in a military style haircut and his honey eyes were looking down at a folder that he carried around with himself.

"I'm Captain Denver." The man introduced himself before putting the folder on the table in front of the siblings. "I would say that it's nice to meet you, but I would be lying. Your names are Evan and Avice Greyson, correct?"

The siblings looked at each other and then back to the officer, nodding in response to the question. "Yes, that's us." Evan said.

"Your situation isn't a good one." Denver stated and opened the folder, which contained information about the two Greysons. "You are charged with speeding and resisting arrest, we tried to contact your parents, but there was no information about them in the database. Even what's written here about your birth place is rather… suspicious, so who are you two really?"

Avice scratched the back of her head. "What are you talking about? There's nothing shady about us I believe, no?" The girl leaned her head forward and reached out for the folder, taking it into her hands. "Our parents were never with us, so it comes as no surprise that you couldn't contact them. But look, there is actually a contact you can call right here!" The girl turned the folder toward Denver and pointed and a series of numbers that were written under 'Contacts'.

"The number written there has stopped existing four years ago." Denver sat down at the table, across from the siblings and crossed his arms. "We can't call your parents, but since you both are underage and according to the laws, you could get only a ticket for speeding unless you were actively endangering people's lives, so I will have to let you go soon."

At that, Evan's eyebrows knit. A Security officer wouldn't tell a suspect that they got nothing against them in such a simple manner. Captain Denver was going toward something else, so much was instantly clear to Evan, the way that he gave the siblings a folder that contained all of their information inside felt almost like he was handling them a key out of the situation. This gesture of kindness, if you could call a cop admitting their own powerlessness as anything but a white flag begging for peace, almost made Evan's lips raised up into a smug smirk.

"If there are no serious charges against us, then why did you take us in?" Evan asked the question directly. "Are you trying to slow our release as much as possible? Or was there something else that you wanted to speak with us about?"

"Yes, there's something I wanted to ask you." Denver nodded. "Are the decks we found on you… Your real decks?"

A deep sigh escaped Evan's mouth as he leaned back into the chair he was sitting onto. His eyes looked around the room while he thought about the question that the officer had just asked him. Why did it really matter if those were their real decks? In fact, he had heard many times in the news about Duelists who used more than one deck, so giving a correct answer to the question was hard. But more importantly that this little detail… How was Denver going to be sure that the provided answer was truth and not a lie? He wasn't a lie detector.

' _So that's how it was?'_ Evan thought and turned his eyes to the metal table in front of him. The top surface, it was thicker than on most tables, the fact it was made from metal would also mean that it was very heavy. Why would the government waste money on something so troublesome to keep?

"You got a lie detector hidden somewhere in this room, don't you?" The sudden accusation caused Denver's eyes to widen.

"What makes you think that?" Denver asked sternly. His eyes focused on the table between him and the siblings. It looked completely normal, they couldn't have figured out that the detector was hidden inside…

"Come on, we are in the interrogation room." Avice pointed out. "I know that this doesn't exactly happen how the TV shows it, but you had bought everything we told you so far without questioning our answers or trying to pry any further. I mean, we could have easily lied to you about these decks, who knows, we might have stolen them from someone just before we got into the town. Saying 'yes' or 'no' is as easy as breathing, but the look on your face says that you trust us. So, you are either way too trustful, in which case you wouldn't have made a good Security Officer, or you don't have a reason to question us because you already know that this is the truth."

"I see…" Denver wasn't expecting that two kids would try to read so deep into such little details. "Then allow me to change the question. Why did you came to Valt Evernon? You are studying in one of the best schools the country has- Westview Advanced Secondary School, your D-Wheel isn't made from scrap either. It's plain obvious that you didn't came here to look for jobs."

That 'amused' Avice. Were they trying to outsmart each? Guess a security officer's pride wouldn't allow this man to accept that two 'kids' managed to read through his little tricks. She could really care less about the policeman's self-esteem, but since at the moment he was their only chance to become free, without having to stage a jailbreak. There was also that security took their D-Wheel, so once they escaped, the officers would just go after them and despite their experience and skills as duelists, and it would be just a matter of time, before she and her brother fell to sheer numbers.

In other words, playing along was the only real choice for long-term stability in this city.

"I'm making a wild guess with this, but I'm going to say that the reason why we came to Valt Evernon was the same, as to why you are so interested in our decks." Avice explained, having figured out the only possible reason why Denver might have asked them about the decks. "There are people playing Duel Monsters, who after duels leave their opponents in a state of coma, right? How many of your colleagues have you buried so far, Mr. Officer?"

Avice looked at the security officer - pupil constriction, raised eyebrows, open eyelids that expose the white sclera above and below the iris, all these details were a sort-of non-verbal response to surprise. She shouldn't have expected anything else though, who wouldn't be surprised when a little girl, which they met for the first time in their life, knew so much about the police case on which they were working?

"Ho- How do you know about that?" Denver asked. "This case wasn't disclosed to the public, only the government knows the details about it."

"Given the specifics of this case, I believe that Swords of Nine Stars came in contact with you, correct?" Evan asked.

Swords of Nine Stars was an organization whose members were the nine most influential Government Representatives, its existence is a secret for the general public and those who were associated with it know only that this group deals with the most dangerous and un-logical crises of the country. But the darker truth that none of these people realize was that Swords of Nine Stars acts more as a cult dedicated to researching evil spiritual forces and finding new forms of life.

They are responsible for many of the worst cases of manslaughter that the country had to face in the last few decades, but none of the other governmental organizations was able to make a connection, giving them the reputation of an all-powerful organization that controls all spheres of the government and public life of this country.

"Yes, I got a call from them." Denver nodded. There was no point in trying to hide it, they already knew so much about it. "This might the most stupid thing ever, but are you two actually agents of Swords of Nine Stars?"

"That's really a stupid thing." Avice sighed and leaned back into her chair.

"Swords of Nine Stars isn't going to help you out, so don't bet your hope on them." Evan stated and stood up from his chair, his crimson eyes staring down at the security officer who. "Their reputation as peacekeepers is just for show, the reality is that when it comes to cases like this one, they prefer to let things happen and just research the result of the crime. Was it successful? If not, why did it fail; and so on."

It was truly laughable that the organization was believed to be a protector of the people. Swords of Nine Stars was just a subdivision of the States' government organization 'REVISION' and the non-government Japanese group called 'Research Nine'.

"Who are you two then?" Denver asked. If they weren't connected to Swords of Nine Stars, then who the heck were these kids? And more importantly than that, how did they know so much? Worst of all was that the detector didn't recognize a lie in their words, which meant that everything the Greysons were telling him was truth. Or at least, they believed it to be so.

"You have most likely not heard about a group named CATHARSIS, have you?" Evan asked. He stepped toward the wall with his back toward Denver and continued. "Don't feel bad if you haven't heard about us, we aren't a government organization, or, an organization at all. We are a non-governmental group whose specialty are the kind of cases that your Security department is struggling against. What I'm going to tell you next might sound crazy, even delusional, but your men weren't exposed to a new form of poison or a chemical that causes death without leaving traces behind itself. The victims of these attacks have lost their souls."

"What?" Denver's eyes widened. "What kind of nonsense is that? Lost their souls?"

Evan glanced back at the officer. "Well, I told you that it might sound crazy."

"Given that you put all of your fate in a cult that loves black magic, I don't see why you might have trouble believing what we told you." Avice sighed. "Really now, you should think about what choices you have. Even if Nine Stars send someone to research this incident, how long will it take them to do so? Definitely move than a week. On the other hand, I and my brother are already here and ready to help you solve this crime, if the long-term survival of your men is your mine priority, then the choice would be obvious."

Denver hated to admit it, but Avice did have a point there. Even if what they said about Swords of Nine Stars being a cult was a lie, it would take time for the organization to displace an agent and by then many other inhabitants of the town might follow the same fate. The siblings were going to be let free after this interrogation either way, so the best choice he had at the moment was to trust their word and allow them to investigate the crime. At least they didn't have any parents to whom he would have to explain if things went sour.

"Very well, I will take you for your word." Denver nodded and stood up from his chair to move next to the door. "But I can't give you any support in your investigation, so you two will have to work on it on your own."

"That's even better." Evan nodded. After all, these were Security Officers, they were trained to deal with normal crimes, not supernatural forces – they were only going to get in the way. "All that we're going to need are our Duel Disks with the decks and my D-Wheel."

"Of course." Denver agreed. "But first, let remove the handcuffs."

* * *

"We should have probably taken a lantern with us." Avice commented, stretching out her, now free, arms while Evan followed behind her, pushing his D-Wheel.

After they were freed, the Security officers gave them back all of their belongings and let them leave the station. Unfortunately this town didn't have any hotels, and in order to be allowed to use a room, you had to be working in one of the multiple factories, so they would have to life in one of the half-collapsed buildings. This wasn't the first time that the siblings have traveled to another town, but all others places that they visited had a motel at the very least.

"That officer was really desperate to stop these attacks." Avice commented again and turned back to her brother. Only a man at the verge of despair would be willing to let children investigate such a dangerous case. At least Avice would give him credit for the desire to protect his own men from the danger that the captain displayed.

"A human's desperation can be a powerful tool." Evan pointed out. "The more desperate they are, the more willingly they submit."

"Should we look for someone to ask about directions?" Avice asked. Of course, that wasn't a necessary, they had no real end goal to look for, and so anywhere they went would be the same. What the siblings needed was information about the attackers, where they attack, are there any connections between their victims and so on. Of course, they could have asked the Security to give them this information, but when Denver told them 'I can't give you any support in your investigation' he was referring exactly to that – the Greysons couldn't use Security's resources.

But there were more than one way to learn about the crime. Currently it was time for lunch break, and Evan focused his attention on the people that walked out of the factories to rest for a bit before returning back to the poisonous atmosphere inside those four walls. Most of them were sitting in small groups or alone, eating a piece of bread and carrot puree.

At average, most workers were in their late twenties, early thirties, people who failed to build a successful career and out of desperation moved to work at this town. Despite what the laws said, there were also many children in these factories, their age varied from eighteen to twelve. Those were the ones whom you could ask for information. Naturally, children were immature, they enjoyed mysteries so they would be more willing to talk about it that adults.

"Target spotted?" Evan looked down at his sister after she asked him. He didn't respond immediately, looking at the children. The older ones, at the age of sixteen to eighteen would be smarter and ask for some big amount of money to talk, while the information they sold wasn't always accurate or useful. It was the younger children, at the age of twelve or thirteen that could be tricked most easily, even used as spies, if paid a good amount of money.

"How about on ten o'clock with the black hair?" Avice asked.

"The eleven years old?" Evan asked back and his sister nodded to confirm. "He isn't as dirty as the others, obviously he is still new to the factory work. Probably got moved here in the last week or so."

"That's not long enough to know anything significant." Avice sighed. While they didn't know the exact period of time through which these attacks have occurred, she could tell that at least a month or two have passed since it started. Otherwise the Nine Stars wouldn't have paid any attention to it.

"Little children don't have the most accurate information either, so we must keep that in mind as well." Evan just reminded Avice about that fact. Despite their labor being cheaper, kids often liked to add 'colors' to stories by adding their own imaginary elements. Thankfully, all that the siblings needed were the locations of the attacks and not details about it.

"Hey, you there!" a voice called out.

The siblings turned back and looked up toward the second floor on an abandoned hotel. Its windows were all, either broken, or stolen and sold out somewhere. Standing there, with one hand gripping the frame to keep her from falling, was a girl with long dark green hair the fell to her lower back. Her warm blue eyes looked down at them with a strange kindness that was completely new for the Greysons. People they have been at places such as this, often had cold eyes, looking at which was like looking at a black hole for the siblings.

The girl leaned forward, her entire upper body hanging from the window, giving them a better look at her. The girl was wearing a dark blue jumpsuit that had a single red stripe going down the middle. On her left arm was a rather heavy-looking circular Duel Disk attached to a Wrist Dealer. It was a model made to be portable with a D-Wheel, Evan silently observed.

"Is that a HDS-48x model D-Wheel?" The girl asked loudly.

Evan narrowed his eyes a little and glanced back at his D-Wheel, before turning back to the girl. The jumpsuit and Duel Disk that she was using showed that the girl was, most likely, a D-Wheeler. But the HDS-48x model models were very close in appearance to most other D-Wheels in appearance, so it wouldn't be easy to recognize one.

"Halfway there." Evan replied. "This is a hybrid model with an Atlas One engine, but its appearance is a lot like that of regular Forty Eight model, so it's easy to mess it up."

"Ooooooh…" The girl's eyes widened in excitement and she leaned even further. "I thought that it looked a bit asymmetrical, but it's because the Atlas One engine is two inches wider than the Forty Eight's engine. If it's not a secret, how much is your D-Wheel able to reach?"

"One hundred and eighty seven miles per hour." Evan crossed his arms. He couldn't tell why the girl was asking him that, nor why she hadn't left yet. Everyone else returned back to the factories to work, only she remained outside.

"Heh, who made your D-Wheel?" The girl chuckled. That made Evan smile as well, the 48x was one of the fastest D-Wheels out there and with the Atlas One engine in addition to that, its maximal speed should be around 210 mph, but he was never able to fix its underperforming, no matter how much he tried.

"I tuned it myself." Evan stated. "I tried to fix it and even drove it to several well-known engineers, but none of them was able to figure out the problem."

"It's a challenge then." The girl pulled herself away from the window and then pointed at the left. "There are several garages behind the hotel, if you are trustful enough, I might give it a look myself."

Ah, what a warm proposal. How could they turn it down and miss the chance of walking into an ambush? Well, maybe if they beat everyone, they would be able to ask some questions. With that in mind, they began to push the D-Wheel toward the location that this strange girl told them. Avice pulled her white and green Duel Disk, put it on her wrist, and began to walk ahead of her brother who followed from behind with a blank expression.

But much to their surprise, no one came after them. They reached the garages without a single soul showing up. It was only them, and the girl from before who waved at them while standing next to the fourth garage door, a blue one with yellow graffiti painted all over it. So she was genuine about trying to fix the D-Wheel? The fact that it wasn't some sort of trick surprised the siblings, was she planning to ask them for a lot of money, or was she just that naïve and well-meaning? It could be either, but her big smile and energetic nature was somewhat disarming for the siblings. When traveling they always had to be on guard for muggers and crooks in general, but this one had a friendly aura that just couldn't be fake.

"We didn't get to know each other's name. I'm Fujiko." The girl introduced herself and reached out for a handshake that Avice accepted.

"My name is Avice Greyson." The young Greyson said before gesturing toward her brother. "This here is my brother, Evan Greyson."

"I have to say, I didn't expect to find a free repair shop in this town." Evan muttered, pushing the D-Wheel next to the door.

"Well, I guess that I'm not feeding myself out of this, but still…" Fujiko ran a hand through her hair. Despite her working other things to make a living, she would be very thankful if they gave her some money for the service.

"Where is your D-Wheel?" Evan asked, thought, as soon as he finished that sentence, Fujiko tilted her head to the side in confusion. That alone was enough to give a definitive answer to the question. "You don't have one, huh? I'm surprised, given the clothes that you wear and this Duel Disk, I expected you to have something to put them in use with."

"It's a long story." Fujiko waved the commented off and kneeled in front of Evan's D-Wheel. "You two aren't from around here, I can tell by your clothes, and the fact that you got such a rare and expensive engine on your D-Wheel."

Funny, that Security captain whose name they already forgot told them something similar. If their visit to Valt Evernon was looked at from a third point of view, it really didn't make sense for them to come here. This was, after all, the town of the desperate, a place where those who failed in life could fine some sort of purpose and a way to sustain themselves in these hard times. It didn't make much sense for anyone to come and visit this town otherwise, it didn't have a value as a tourist attraction either.

"We were going on a small excursion for the weekend, and it just so happened that we ended up in this town for a small break." Evan explained. "I heard that some horrible things happened, so we plan to leave as soon as possible."

"Ah, so word about the incidents did spread to other towns after all?" Fujiko muttered and Evan looked at her. It seemed that the focus of her attention was the D-Wheel, but she still listened to what was being talked about. "Honestly, if I had a D-Wheel on my own and place to go, I would have left this town a long time ago."

"Oh?" So she wanted to earn freedom, how cute. With soul stealers running around no one would want to stay around this town, even if this was the only place where they could earn money. But, like Evan said before - a human's desperation can be a powerful tool. If he offered her something she was desperate for, in exchange for her help, there was no way that this Fujiko girl would decline.

First, however, he needed to make sure that she had something to exchange, to make their deal a fair one.

"Do you know by a chance anything about the incidents?" Evan asked.

"Not much, Security covers everything up. If you ask me, I think that they might be involved in all of this." Fujiko sighed and stood back up. "I figured out why your D-Wheel is unable to reach its maximal speed. By the way, did you ever try to get over one hundred and twenty miles?"

"I never had the need to, why?" Evan had the feeling that she wasn't asking just out of curiosity.

"Because if you did, you might have lost your front fork while riding." Fujiko pointed at the fork. "The screws are defective. Good enough if you drive within the speed limits, but try to be a speedster and next time you are going to wake up, either in the hospital, or…"

"Could you fix it?" changing the screws won't be hard, but finding actual spare parts will create some difficulties.

"I could. It will take me a few hours to get the parts, but everything here can easily be fixed." Fujiko stood up and opened the doors of the garage.

The siblings stepped back a bit to get a good look of the inside, there was some dried out oil on the ground and a small wooden table with instruments on it. No lamp or other source of light, which meant that people were able to work there only during the day. As Fujiko began to push the D-Wheel inside, Evan stepped after her and looked around the place. He ran a finger through the surface of the table, leaving a trace behind – the place was covered in dust, which, along with the dried out oil on the ground told him that this garage wasn't used often, probably once a year, if not less.

"If there are any shops selling spare parts, we could get them for you." Avice suggested. Since she was going to try and fix their only transport, getting the parts needed was the least that they could do for her.

"There are no such shops in the town." Fujiko shook her head. This place would have been a paradise if it had shops for anything.

The companies whose factories work inside this town make sure to give their workers food and life necessaries instead of a certain amount of their payment. Some people thought that this was a blessing, but most realized that the payment for the transportation of those products was coming from their paychecks.

"The factories in the city are very careful with their production and keep tabs on how much is being produced." Fujiko turned her back to the siblings. "Everything that is built in there gets accounted for, expect for the spare parts. All factories that produce something made from metal parts have a storage with spare parts, in case something breaks of a defective product is made. Since it would be too much of a bother to count all the spare parts, and keep tabs on everyone who takes them, the factories don't bother that much. It's actually not hard to sneak up and steal some."

"So, I take it that you have worked in the factories as well?" Avice asked. That not only made sense, but it also shone light upon the entire mystery.

"I still do, from time to time." Fujiko replied and looked away, gripping her left hand with the right one, a gesture that the siblings didn't miss. "Truth is, I came here with my father after his previous work messed up. It happened about seven years ago, back when I was just twelve. Unfortunately, his body was never very durable and the toxic air of this town killed him two years ago."

"Sorry for your lost." Both Evan and Avice muttered in unison. Too bad, they could never truly sympathize with Fujiko when it came to such tragic ends. The reason for that were many, but mainly it was because they never had any family in the first place. Fuller was the closes that the three Greyson had to a parent figure in their lives, but they always knew that he would die soon, they never bothered to care about him.

"I should be the one apologizing for bothering you with the story of my life." Fujiko laughed it off and forced herself to smile again. "If that is be everything, I will go get the parts right now."

Fujiko was in a hurry to get away from people, the siblings figured that out momentarily. She wanted to find something to vent her sadness onto and neither Evan, nor Avice, wanted to have anything to do with that. If they knew that the girl would start remembering sad memories and cry, Evan would have fixed the D-Wheel by himself. Sadly, there wasn't a way for them to see that one coming. Neither of them said anything else, nothing came to their mind, so the three just stood there in silence for a few moments until Fujiko finally ran toward the exit.

Unfortunately for her, Evan grabbed her arm before she could get out of the garage. Her warm blue eyes meet with his blank red ones, she wanted to pull her arm away, or say something about how this wasn't appropriate, but she just couldn't do that, for some reason. Maybe it was because she thought that he, a stranger she met not more than fifteen minutes ago, wanted to comfort her pain, or something like that, but she just couldn't gather the will to pull away from his arm.

On the other side, Evan wasn't very proud with this deed, he just pried, to whatever supernatural power was that looked over him, that this girl wasn't going to start crying on his shoulder. Damn it! The only reason he pulled her was because there was one more question that he needed an answer to before leaving, but his mind realized that facing her with such a question after an emotional moment was the most stupid thing one could do.

"About your payment…" Because directly asking her the question would only make him look like a complete douchebag, he was going to use a more indirect approach. "How about we make a deal?"

"A deal?" Fujiko repeated. Just after she told them about her father, he was going to try and bargain for his D-Wheel? Seriously?

"It's more of an agreement with mainly benefits for you." Evan corrected himself a tad too late. Nevertheless, the girl nodded, willing to listen about that so called 'deal' or 'agreement' of his. "When we told you that we are going on a small vacation, that was a lie. We came to this city to finish a job and thanks for your help toward us, I would like to suggest you a way out of this town. We had pretty big house at Easthaven that could use a few more residents. We can help you start a business there as well, have a normal life that your father definitely wanted you to have."

This time he went too far. Evan knew himself well enough, he was a complete fool, but also, a dreadful person. Only someone awful would use a girl's desperation to get free as a bargain chip. Only someone without morals would burden her with such a deal when she was most vulnerable and acting based on emotions. Only a shameless person would use the memories of her deceased father to trick her into accepting that offer. And finally, only a monster would do all of these things without feeling even a tiny bit of guilt over these horrible actions.

"Freedom…" As expected, Fujiko actually thought about it. "In return for my help, you are going to help me start a normal life? Is what I'm doing for you really that important?"

No – would be the honest answer in that situation, but who said that honesty always won people over? If she truly had skills as an engineer, it would be a waste to let her root in this shithole for the rest of her life. Despite how he worded it, Evan had no plans to give her true freedom. Giving her something that expensive for fixing a single D-Wheel? Laughable. If Fujiko accepted that offer, she will become his property, a skilled engineer that works for free and owns him her life, that latter part would be a constant reminder for her and a way to keep her in check. From being a prisoner to town, she was going to turn into a slave of her own desire for freedom, quite the ironic twist of fate.

"You have no idea how important what you are doing for us is." Evan replied and took her hand into his own. Her current work was meaningless, but what she could do for them in the future? That was worth a lot and all of it would come to him for free. "So, will you accept?"

"Well, you were honest when you said that agreeing on this would benefit me the most." Fujiko muttered and looked away in embarrassment. Sadly, she had no idea how wrong she was about the benefits of the offer. "My dad would probably want the best for me as well, so, I agree."

Despite agreeing, Evan could sense that Fujiko was still emotionally conflicted. Perhaps, she was still sulking for her death father? Perhaps he should have thought things through before making that offer to her, it would be troublesome if she let her emotion get in the way of work.

"W-well then, I will be going. Please, close the door if you leave the garage." Fujiko muttered and tried to pull her arm away from Evan. This time, he let go of her, something that not only surprised Fujiko, but disappointed her as well. She couldn't explain why, but she was hoping that he wouldn't let her go.

Without saying anything more, Fujiko walked away. Avice looked after the older girl, while she slowly disappeared behind the collapsed buildings. Evan on the other hand walked over to his D-Wheel and removed the Duel Disk from his Wrist Dealer. He didn't trust Fujiko, a human's desperation could be a powerful bargain chip, but it could also turn them into a wildcard. There was no guarantee that she was going to wait for them, instead of stealing the D-Wheel, to free herself.

That would be a good time to test the girl's morality.

Clicking a button on the side of his Wrist Dealer, Evan detached the Duel Disk and then put it on top of his D-Wheel, connecting them together. Now Fujiko would have both the vehicle and something to protect herself with if she choose to steal Evan's belongings. But how far was she going to get?

"Kitty!" Evan shouted and momentarily the spirit of his Link Monster, ChronoDevil Time Tamer Kitty appeared in front of him, bowing to her master. He never had to worry about calling out his monsters outside duels, since only humans with affinity to the spirit realm were able to see them, as long as he didn't give them enough dark energy to materialize their physical form, no one but Avice would know that a conversation happened.

" _What is your order, master?"_ the spirit asked, bowing politely to her owner. Her eyes perked and the tail cat swung lively behind her as she waited to hear Evan's desire.

"I'm leaving you all to protect my D-Wheel." Evan stated and gestured at the vehicle. "If anyone expect the girl from before tries to steal either the D-Wheel or my Duel Disk, kill them. If the girl tries to steal the Duel Disk, scare her. If she tries to steal the D-Wheel, kill her. I don't care about the methods you use to protect what rightfully belongs to your master."

" _Your orders will be followed to the letter, master."_ Kitty confirmed, trying to hide away her smile.

Unlike what many stories said in the past, humanity and the spirit realm didn't have a friendly relationship. There were expectations, but most often the two species were either neutral toward each other, or outright wanted to destroy each other. The ChronoDevils' clan failed into the latter category. Despite that, as an army, the devils of darkness had an extreme sense of honor, and would follow a brilliant leader without a question, even if it was a human. Because of that Kitty, and practically all of the spirits that lived inside Evan's deck, didn't know a bigger gift than the ability to serve their rightful owner, and leader.

And now, the ChronoDevils all hoped for a few fools to show up and try steal something from the garage, so they could kill them. No one would really care about these mortals for too long anyway, and they will also be able to eat the death fools souls afterward. There were only a few orders that could be better than that, but there was no chance for Evan to order them to destroy the entire town, was there?

"You should have ordered them to get rid of the corpses afterward, but perhaps your spirits are smart enough to know that this is a given." Avice commented, crossing her arms. Unlike her brother's spirits though, her Astral Angels acted more like machines and never bothered putting more energy in their tasks than necessary; because of that she always had to give them super detailed explanations. Such lousy servants they were.

"Since I'm going to be diskless for the rest of the day, I'll have to depend on your. Will that be ok?" Evan asked, stepping toward the door of the garage, next to his sister.

"It won't be a problem, even better, this means that you won't be able to leave my side for the rest of the day." Avice stuck her tongue out at Evan playfully, earning herself a few pats on the hair. "Also, that girl from before was clinging on you a bit too much for my likings. How sad must someone be to get attracted toward you, like toward a magnet?"

Evan looked down at his hand and clenched it into a fist. "She must be sorrowing deeply for her father, that's the only way I can explain why her emotions got linked so strongly to my negative affinity." If Fujiko's sadness was only superficial, Evan's negative affinity would have been able to absorb it all in a short period of time, to the point where she won't even remember why she was sad in the first place.

"Why did you have to be the one who inherited this curse?" Avice asked a question that, surprisingly, neither she, nor her brother, had an answer to. "If you had my positive affinity instead the negative you, I'm sure that your life wouldn't have been so miserable, brother."

"Nonsense." Evan replied and grabbed onto the door of the garage to close it. "There is nothing worse for a brother than to see his sisters being miserable. If I didn't get the negative affinity, then that would have been either you or Elizabeth."

Avice stayed silent, she didn't have anything to respond with. Of course, she didn't want to be the one stuck with the negative affinity, and a part of her didn't want Elizabeth to become its victim either, but as a sister, she just couldn't help but feel bad for her brother's fate.

"Anyways," Evan groaned, slamming the garage door closed. "We have almost figured out this mystery, there are just a few things that we need to research. If you call Roxy and Levant to do it for us, we won't have to waste our time with pointless details."

"That won't be a problem." Avice nodded and took her own Duel Disk, which was attached to the back of her belt until that moment. "What do you want them to look into?"

"I want Levant to try and find information about the spots where all of the attacks took place." Evan looked ahead to the huge cloud of smoke that raised above the factories. "As for Proxy, I want her to try and find as much information about Valt Evernon's infrastructure. Any old maps of the town, articles mentioning it, everything that holds even a bit of information about this place will be useful. This case will be resolved tonight."

"Understood." Avice nodded. "To be more exact, we are looking for underground tunnels and constructions, right? It was obvious that the collapsed tunnel you dueled into wasn't destroyed by Mother Nature. Someone collapsed it from the inside, sealing the place."

"Nothing escapes your sight as always." Evan chuckled and turned around, putting the hood of his jacket over his head. Immediately after he did that, Avice followed suit and gave him a nod to confirm that she was ready. The two of them ran off toward the place where the Turbo Duel took place.

* * *

After the long day that started with running from Security, getting put in jail and then talking to a wannabe engineer, it was already 7:45 PM, when Evan and Avice were finally able to do some proper investigation.

As the two of them walked into the tunnel, they found that darkness had already covered the interior of the structure, but that wasn't going to be too much of a problem for them. Pulling out her Duel Disk, Avice activated its green energy blade, creating some light that would help them get around the place without losing themselves, or slam face first into a wall. The two of them made their way to the collapsed area. Like they had thought previously, there was no way through, the wreckage had sealed the rest of the tunnel completely and the only way to get past it would be if a team with special equipment removed the wreckage first.

But there was something that caught Avice's attention. She kneeled down and found traces of a motorbike's wheel that must have left an imprint either when the rider took off or when they suddenly hit the brakes. Either way, the fact that it was still visible meant that it must have happened not too long ago and the imprint continued under the wreckage, which further proved that the tunnel had collapsed not more than two weeks ago.

"It definitely wasn't an explosion and I don't know what equipment could allow them to both collapse the tunnel, and then carry it away on a D-Wheel." Evan said simply. "Unless…"

"They used Duel Monsters." Avice finished the sentence for her brother. "One or two huge dragons would be able to get this thing down with zero effort."

As she said that, Avice's Duel Disk began to ring. The young Greyson looked over at it before handing it over to Evan, who gave it a look as well. The words 'Incoming Call: Levant' were written over the screen. Pressing the 'Accept Call' button, Evan moved the Duel Disk closer to his ear, while Avice stood nearby to hear what this was all about.

"I was starting to get worried that you will leaves us empty-handed." Evan immediately said, before the person on the other line could say a word. "Did you get anything?"

"I was able to get some more detailed information about the incidents." Levant answered. "I'm not sure what I was supposed to look for, though."

"Could you confirm that none of the attacks happened around the living quarters of the town?" Evan asked.

"Yeah I can… But why would they attack during midnight at places where normal civilians aren't likely to appear, at that time of the day?"

"What about the last incident? Can you give me a place where it happened?" That could be it. The last lead that would get them straight to the cause of all the attacks.

"Officially, the last incident happened when the Security forces tried to create an ambush for the attackers." Levant began to explain. "According to this, it happened at District Seven A and more specifically, on the subways in area Q-STAH-Seven-One-Three. I had to ask a _friend_ to break into their servers for this information, so that's all I can tell you about the incident."

"That's all that we needed. You can come visit us at the mansion tomorrow around lunchtime to praise our detective skills." With that said, Evan pressed the 'End Call' button and handled the Duel Disk back to Avice. "Our new destination are the subways at District Seven A."

"And we got to walk all the way there on foot." Avice sighed. She already regretted that they left her brother's D-Wheel for repairs. "Though we got only four hours until midnight, so we better hurry up."

Evan had to agree with his sister. All of the previous attacks took place around, or after midnight, so it was expected for the next one to happen around that time as well. Only thing they weren't sure about was, if there would be an attack during tonight at all. The criminals didn't appear to have a schedule about the days of their raids.

* * *

"This whole thing is starting to suck." Avice sulked, already tired of all the walking they had to do for one day.

"Stop whining like a little bitch." Avice pouted at her brother's retort and turned to face away from him. Evan eyed her from the corner of his eyes, but said nothing.

It was already getting well past 9 PM and the two of them were walking through some more tunnels located under the city. It was a good thing that they asked Roxy to look up information about the town, since she was able to provide them with old maps for the subways and various other tunnels that were meant to be built before Valt Evernon got repurposed into… whatever the current Valt Evernon was supposed to be. Like with the previous tunnel, they found that many of the tunnels of the subways were collapsed as well, probably the same way as well. That caused the siblings to change their route many times. It was unmistakable that somebody was trying to keep outsides away.

But no matter how much they might try to hide what's on the other side of the tunnels, the Greysons knew that there was still at least one path that wasn't destroyed yet. The reason why they believed so? Because the tunnels were the best way to get away from Security when you are being chased. That was the reason why these attackers were never caught and that meant that they must have made their own, secret pathway.

After around an hour or more, they finally reached something. It was a small open area that connected to the rest of the tunnels. The siblings concluded that this must have been one of the spots, where the builders that worked on the tunnels and subways took breaks before the projects were cancelled, and Valt Evernon turned into a huge industrial area. Using the faint light of Avice's Duel Disk, the two of them looked around and found something strange.

There was a lamp hanging from the ceiling with its cables reaching the ground below, where they lied next to a three way movable trailing electrical socket. All of that was new technology as well, but no one should have visited that place in the last thirty-five years.

So that was where the fugitives hidden from Security during the day. Evan put the plug into one of the socket and the lamp immediately lighted the entire room. The area was mostly empty with only two sleeping bags at the corner and a small table in the center - Jackpot.

The siblings began to look through the 'room' for any clues as to where their targets were, or what they were up to. Evan thoughtfully scanned every inch of the area, finding an empty jar lying on the ground, next to the table's leg. Under closer inspection, he was able to deduce that it was used to store carrot puree. From what limited knowledge he had about this town, carrot puree seemed to be the main food that factories gave out to their workers. With that in mind, he continued to look for clues, it didn't take him long to find another lead either.

"There are ashes here." Avice looked at the black substance. "They must have burned something here earlier. Seems like paper, probably a message of some sort?"

"So someone else supported them from the outside?" Evan wasn't surprised to hear that. The ashes, the empty jar of carrot puree and what Fujiko told them earlier about the factories management – all of these pieces were coming together.

"Probably from outside the town as well." Avice deduced. From the look of it, they were going after the goons, not the mastermind. "If they used paper messages as a mean of communication instead of the communication system installed every Duel Disk, these people must be afraid of being spied upon. But there is no post office in this town, so someone must have come all the way to here in order to deliver the message."

"This place has been cleared recently, which means that tonight is most likely going to be their last hit." Of course, after getting the last part, they were going to depart from the town, using the unfinished tunnels as a way to get away. Since all but one of the entrances leading toward this spot were collapsed, it would take months, even years for Security to find out that this was their hideout. That was, if anyone in the Security even looked at the maps of the subway plans, but judging by how they were unable to figure out anything yet, that wasn't going to be the case.

"There is no time to waste then." Avice replied and walked over to the contact, pulling the plug out of the socket, covering the two of them in complete darkness. Since their sleeping bags and personal belongings were still there, the fugitives were most likely going to show up at the place one last time…

* * *

"Suspect was located in district Five V!" Denver sighed at the report, it was the same thing as two days ago.

No matter how hard they tried, how many of their comrades fell in the fight, they were never able to catch the criminals responsible for these attacks. The police officer made a gesture for his men to follow him. Despite how hopeless their situation was, despite the officers that he lost in the past few months, he just couldn't give up on the chase either.

The familiar sound of police sirens echoed through the empty streets once more with three police cards and several Security officers on D-Wheels began yet another chase with the infamous criminals.

The black D-Wheel didn't seem intimidated by its chasers, in fact, the rider wasn't trying to outrun the officers at all, something that confused Denver to no end. Were they trying to provoke the officers by driving just fast enough not to get caught? No, there was no time to think like that. Taking a deep breath, Denver pulled out his gun and aimed at the back of the D-Wheeler through the open window of the police car. His finger pressed against the trigger, when a sudden realization caught up with the captain.

The black D-Wheel had lead them toward district Seven A, the place of the failed ambush. It was a trap! Denver prepared to shot the D-Wheeler as soon as possible and end this before things could get any further, but he was already too late. Driving off the wrecked road, the black D-Wheel jumped into the air, toward the hole that Van'Dalgyon the Dark Dragon Lord created two days ago. At that moment, the D-Wheeler put a card on his Duel Disk's blade and Dragonecro Nethersoul Dragon flew behind him, roaring at the chasers.

"Stop! Stop!" Denver yelled at the driver, while the large undead monster opened its mouth and fired purple flames toward them. The fire, merged with dark magic, engulfed the entire Security force that followed the black D-Wheel, limiting the vision of the drivers while the cries of the unprotected Duel Chasers echoed through the abandoned streets. Unable to see anything at all, the driver was forced to hit the brakes and come to an absurd stop, feeling something slam against the back of the car.

"Fuck!" Denver cursed and kicked the door open, jumping outside. He looked back at his forces, all of the cars had crashed into one another while the Duel Chasers lied unmoving not too far away from the rest.

"Sir!" Denver turned toward his driver, who spoke up. "What should we do now?"

"Give up on the chase and call a medic team for the wounded!" Denver ordered him, before turning toward the other officers who were still able to do their duties. "Don't just stand there! Your colleagues might be in serious pain, help them out!"

The officers all nodded and ran back to help the fallen Duel Chasers, Denver's driver returned into the car to call for backup, leaving the Security captain to stand alone. What more could he do? No one that he called for help was willing to give it, none of the other Security stations in the region were willing to send reinforcements and there was no reply from the Swords of Nine Stars either. Although Denver didn't want to admit it, he felt so miserable, so weak and useless at the moment, that all of his remaining faith was in two kids, and his hope that they, somehow, would be able to overcome what he and his men were powerless against.

"I'm a fool." Being so desperate and hopeless that to seek help from children? Where was his mind?

"Look out!" the sudden yelling from one of his fellow officers snapped Denver back to reality. The Security captain turned toward where the Duel Chasers were lying, only to see two of his men crawling away as one of the Duel Chasers had grabbed an officer by the neck and was holding him above the ground.

"Stand down!" Denver ordered the Duel Chaser, but the man didn't even recognize his presence. "Put him down!" After a few moments the Security officer's legs stopped kicking and the Chaser threw the limp corpse away before turning to face the others. At that time, Denver was something that greatly disturbed him.

The Duel Chaser's eyes were covered by a purple mist. Noticing that there were still officers left, the possessed began to slowly walk toward them.

"Stand where you are! Don't make me shot you!" Denver shouted, aiming his gun at the approaching officer. He was really going to do it!

But then, he heard more noise coming from behind the approaching Duel Chaser. The other fallen officers, including the one that was strangled to death a few moments ago, were starting to stand up again. Eyes covered by the same purple mist, the bodies began to slowly approach toward the small group of survivors. How? How was Denver supposed to stop the men that he swore to protect?

* * *

"That was the last hit in our carrier!"

"That's nothing! Once we get out of here, we will become legends in the criminal world!"

Evan closed his eyes and listened to the voices below him. A black D-Wheel had stopped inside the dark tunnels under his hiding spot, and from what he could make out from their conversation, those were the criminals that the Security officers had so much trouble with. At least they turned the lights back on, giving him a chance to take a better look at them. Both duelists appeared to be in their late twenties, early thirties, wearing leather pants and jackets. By their builds and heights, he could tell that both duelists were males, but because of the helmets, he couldn't make out their facial features.

The only reason why he hadn't jumped on them yet was because he hoped that they would say something, give him a hint about who pulled the strings, but no such luck. All they were saying was how much money these incidents were going to get them once they escaped from the town.

"So you are the rats that I traveled here to take care off." Completely not following the plan, Avice stepped out of her hiding spot, revealing her presence to the henchmen. "I was expecting for something mildly entertaining, like a cult toward death gods or something. But you two ended up being just some foolish lawbreakers."

The men looked at each other confused. They had no idea where that girl came from, nor what she was talking about, but she was a witness and they couldn't let that slide.

"You choose to mess with the wrong people." One of the men said and pulled a knife from his jacket.

"Wow, you even sound like Saturday morning cartoon villains." Avice smirked a little to herself. "Heads up, chimps!"

"I'm not going to fall for-" Before the man could finish, the back of his head was met with the heel of a black and red boot, striking straight onto his head, causing the man to lost balance and fall face first into the concrete. The visor on his helmet cracked under the pressure, while Evan landed on the ground and flipped a few times to gain some ground between himself and the criminals, stopping once he was next to his sister.

"In the end, all of the Action Duels I participated into did pay off, huh?" Evan commented, pushing his sister on the shoulder.

Avice shook her head unimpressed by her brother's entrance. "Let's speak business. I and my brother here came to make a deal with the two of you. See, if you surrender right now, tell us the content of the paper that you burned and then beg for your lives, we might let you live."

"How about a different time of deal?" the second henchman asked, drawing his Duel Disk. "I will deal with these two brats, wait for me under district Thirteen A, got it?"

The first henchman groaned, standing back up. There was a bit of blood dripping from his lower lip, a wound that he received as a result of Evan kicking his head into the concrete ground below. He looked up at his partner and nodded in agreement, there was no need for both of them to waste any more time there. Putting his knife back into the leather jacket, the man jumped on his D-Wheel and drove into one of the tunnels, disappearing behind the curtain of darkness.

"Avice." Evan said simply.

"Take the tunnel on the right, go left, right, right, left, right, left and you will know the rest." Evan followed his sister's instructions and ran into the tunnel on his right, leaving Avice to deal with the second henchman.

"So I'm going to fight a little girl?" the henchman chuckled to himself, that was going to be way too easy for him.

"I don't expect a parasite like you to put too much of a fight, but at least try to entertain me." Avice sighed and put on her Duel Disk. "I just have to warm you that once we start, no amount of being will be enough to save you from the fate you choose."

"We are going to see who's going to beg at the end of this!" the henchman shot back, activating the yellow blade of his black Duel Disk.

"You believe that you can kill me? I'd like to see you try." Avice's smirk grew wider and two beams of light shot from her back, transforming into wings.

"What the?" The henchman gasped and took a step back. This girl, she just grew wings like some sort of angel?!

"Let's head the lullaby of your dying soul!" Avice shouted and threw her left arm upward, the green blade of her Duel Disk coming to life.

"DUEL!"

 **『** **Henchman LP: 4000 Hand: 5 (VS) Avice LP: 4000 Hand: 5** **』**

"The first move goes to me!" Avice declared and took a card from her hand, playing it immediately. "I Normal Summon _**Astral Angel Wächter**_!"

On the field jumped a man wearing a long white robe that covered all of his body with a hood and a mask hiding all of his face, expect for his eyes which had light blue sclera and no irises. The monster pulled out two swords made from yellow energy and swiped them in the air before holding them by his side. A core of the same color as the monster's eyes in the form of a triangle glowed from the warrior's chest as he prepared himself.

* * *

 **Astral Angel Wächter**

 **Level: 4/Attribute: LIGHT EARTH/Type: Warrior/Tuner/Effect**

 **ATK: 1900/DEF: 900**

 **Effect: When this card is Summoned: If you control no other monsters, or all monsters on your field have LIGHT attribute, you can Special Summon 1 "Astral Angel Pfleger" from your hard or deck. If this card is in your GY, you can target 1 Normal or Counter Trap Card in your GY (Quick Effect): Banish both this card and that target; apply that banished Trap's effect. (You can activate this effect in response to Spell Speed 3 effects.)**

* * *

"When he is summoned, Astral Angel Wächter can call its apprentice on the field!" A card popped from Avice's Duel Disk and she played it. "Come out, _**Astral Angel Pfleger**_!"

Wächter crossed his swords, opening a rift in space through which a young woman in similar white clothes, but with a short skirt to reveal her white boots, jumped through, holding a small knife in her left arm. The new monster flicked her red hair to the side of her face to show her eyes, which had yellow sclera and, like Avice's previous monster, no irises. Red lines began to glow over her white clothes, creating three large crosses, one on her chest and two on her shoulders. Finally, a yellow core in the form of a star glowed from her chest, the item being located between her neck and breasts.

* * *

 **Astral Angel Pfleger**

 **Level: 4/Attribute: LIGHT WIND/Type: Spellcaster/Effect**

 **ATK: 1400/DEF: 1200**

 **Effect: If this card is Special Summoned by the effect of "Astral Angel Wächter", you can add 1 "Selig" Spell Card from your deck or GY, to the hand. If this card is in your GY, you can target 1 "Astral Angel" monster in your GY: Banish this card from your GY; Special Summon that target on either player's side of the field, but its effects are negated.**

* * *

"Two Level Four monsters…" The henchman narrowed his eyes. One of the monsters was also a Tuner, so she could either go for a Rank Four Xyz or a Level Eight Synchro right off the bat… "But I'm not going to just stand here. When my opponent Special Summons a monster, I can discard one card to Special Summon _Chaos Hunter (Lv.7, ATK: 2500)_ from my hand!"

Even though it was Avice's turn, on the henchman's side of the field appeared a woman in dark red armor with a mask covering her face and long white hair flowing behind her. The warrior pulled out a whip and slapped the ground with it.

"Due to Chaos Hunter I can't banish cards. What a hassle." Avice sighed and took another card from her hand. "First off, since I Special Summoned Astral Angel Pfleger, I can the Selig Transformation Spell from my deck to the hand. Next, I activate the Continuous Spell- _**Astral Call**_! With it, I can target two monsters on my field and Special Summon one from my deck with a level equal to, or lower than their combined level."

* * *

 **Astral Call (Spell) Continuous**

 **If you have 2 or more monsters on your side of the field with a LIGHT attribute upon this card's activation: Special Summon 1 LIGHT Fairy monster from your deck whose level is less or equal to the combined level of 2 of the monsters on your field. Every time a card is banished, while this card is face-up on the field or in your banished zone, place 2 Astral Counters on this card. You can remove Astral Counters from the field to Special Summon 1 LIGHT monster from your deck, GY, or banished zone, whose Level is equal to the Astral Counters removed to activate this effect.**

* * *

"Choosing Wächter and Pfleger to serve as the foundations, I can Special Summon _ **Sola Starlit the Destruction Seraph**_ from my deck!"

The two Astral monsters crossed their weapons in from of Astral Call and a beam of radiant light shot out of Avice's spell card, transforming into a path. Lightnings began to fly out of the card and transformed into wings made from energy connected to the outline of a human being. After a moment, colors began to fly into the outlines, forming a pair of glowing eyes followed by the appearance of a human girl.

Her eyes were blue with white stars in them while her hair was white and reached the ground while also floating a little sideways, leaving her back exploded. She wore a white and black one piece dress that reached only up to her tights. There was a bright blue gem adorning the center of the outfit, with several blue energy lines going across the shoulders and the skirt, specifically, where the skin met the dress. A single blue jewel was attached to the left side of the skirt portion of the outfit, framed in gold with a blade made from energy hanging from underneath it. Finally she wore white boots that reached her tights with black line separating the cloth from her skin and two red, triangular lines, pointing downward.

* * *

 **Sola Starlit the Destruction Seraph**

 **Level: 6/Attribute: LIGHT/Type: Fairy/Effect**

 **ATK: 2500/DEF: 1800**

 **Effect: Monsters you control are unaffected by your opponent's Trap Cards. Once per turn (Quick Effect): You can banish 1 other LIGHT monster from your hand or GY, then this card gains ATK equal to the ATK of the monster banished to activate this effect, until the end of this turn, and if it does, this card can't be affected by your opponent's cards or destruction until the end of the current Phase.**

* * *

"You could have gone for a Level Eight, but you choose a simple Level Six monster?" the henchman was confused by Avice's plays. Maybe she just didn't have any high level monsters in her deck, or something. "Or maybe you thought about using its battle oriented effects, but because it's the first turn, you can't attack me!"

"I already know that." Avice stated calmly and played another card from her hand "What kind of fool you are. I'm going to attack your monster in just a moment, but before that I'm going to activate the Equip Spell, _**Seraph's Titan Wings**_!"

Sola threw her arms to the side and the electricity that shot from her back in the shape of wings were replaced by large blades of metal that came together to create the monster's new wings. Afterward, small armor plates flew to the fairy's chest and cheeks, adding extra protection.

* * *

 **Seraph's Titan Wings (Spell) Equip**

 **Can only be equipped to a "Sola" monster. It gains 300 ATK and DEF, also, change its form to "Titanic Destruction Seraph". If the equipped with this card attacks a defense position monster, inflict double piercing damage to your opponent. During your 2nd Standby Phase after this card's activation: Shuffle this card into your deck. When this card leaves the field, return the equipped monster to its base form.**

* * *

"The effect of Titan Wings' not only gives the equipped monster three hundred attack and defense, but it also changes its form into _**Sola Starlight the Titanic Destruction Seraph**_!" Avice raised the blade of her Duel Disk to show the henchman as her Sola Starlight card's appearance changed to match with her new form.

* * *

 **Sola Starlight the Titanic Destruction Seraph (Form)**

 **Effect: This form of "Sola Starlight the Destruction Seraph" can only be activated by the effect of a card with "Titanic Destruction Seraph" in its card text. This card can declare 1 additional attack on your opponent during the Main Phase. Once per turn, you can target 1 monster your opponent controls: Destroy it. If this monster destroys a card by battle or with a card effect, inflict 300 damage to your opponent.**

* * *

"A Form change!?" the henchman stepped back. He had never heard of such a concept before. "Just… what's with this deck?"

"I activate Sola Starlight the Titanic Destruction Seraph's effect!" Avice ignored her opponent's protest and continued with her turn. "I target Chaos Hunter and destroy it! _**Titanic Blades**_!" Sola flew into the air and then fired several blades at Chaos Hunter, piercing through the monster's flesh. The henchman grunted and looked down at his left hand, which was bleeding after one of the blades accidentally cut it.

 **『** **Henchman LP: 4000 – 300** → **3700** **』**

"What the…" now he was beyond terrified. "That's real damage. How can your monsters deal real damage?! Only shadow cards can have this ability!"

"What are you saying?" Avice asked and leaned forward a little, looking at her prey with a devilish grin. "This, only shadow cards can hurt humans is a complete nonsense, but of course, should I expect anything more from a factory worker who's trying to get rich by stealing spare parts?" the henchman's eyes widened at the accusation – checkmate. "Honestly, both I and my brother thought that this entire thing was connected to some cult trying to revive an ancient evil spirit or something, but the more evidence we found, the more our disappointment grew."

"When learning that the spare parts aren't accounted for in the factories, we already had our first doubts, but then there were also the locations of your attacks." Avice continued to explain. "All of them happened around the factories, so while one of you was outside, scaring people and stealing souls to feed the shadow cards that you two possess, the other one would sneak into the factory and steal the parts you were ordered to steal."

"But how did you know that no one would realize if several spare parts went missing? The empty jar of carrot puree lying next to the table's leg gave the answer. Carrot puree is the food that factories give to their employ instead of part of their payment. The two of you were working in the factories as well, before changing professions, weren't you?"

The henchman narrowed his eyes. That girl was the real deal, everything she told him was correct. He couldn't leave this duel anymore, if he did, the men that paid him for this job would kill him for leaving a witness that knew so much!

"Now, Sola Starlight the Titanic Destruction Seraph will attack you directly with _**Titanic Wings Charge**_!" The fairy leaped into the air and made a backflip before charging toward its target.

"But you can't attack during your first tur-!" Before the henchman could finish what he wanted to say, the blades on Sola's back grew and she slashed at him with an 'X' shaped attack. The exchange was instantaneous – the henchman could only scream from the force of the attack that launched him backward like a bullet, slamming into the wall that was several feet away from where he once stood. Blood slashed on the ground, from the large wound that Avice's ace dug into the man's chest.

 **『** **Henchman LP: 3700 – 2800** → **900** **』**

"The official rules of the game never state anything about the player being unable to declare an attack." Avice pointed out. "All that the rules say is, that the first played can't entire their Battle Phase. However, due to Sola's effect, she is able to attack you during the Main Phase!"

"D-damn it." the man stammered, coughing blood from the amount of damage that this one attack caused.

"Now that I got your attention, I think I will go for a Link Summon." Avice stated and raised her arm in the air, a circuit opening above her head. "Appear, circuit of the universe! Arrowheads confirmed! Summoning requirements are two Astral Angel monsters! I set Astral Angel Wächter and Astral Angel Pfleger in the Link Markers!" the arrow on the left side and the bottom glowed as Avice's monsters flew into them and finished the circuit. "Link Summon! The holy pathfinder of purgatory! _**Astral Angel Extra-Stern**_!"

Out of the circuit fell a monster that looked like a fusion between a human and a machine. Below the torso it had a large glowing green jewel kept in a golden frame in the form of a blade, which was extended to the sides, in order to look like a cross. The upper part of the monster's body resembled that of a man with a muscular physique, but its pale skin and the lines that ran through its arms and stomach showed that this part wasn't organic either.

The monster's arms were black with green circuits on them, its shoulders were covered in golden armor with server also as pauldron that held small white capes, with golden borders and the blue drawing of two stars merging together in the center of the capes. The lower part of its face was exposed, while its eyes, and practically everything above them, were covered by a long pointy helmet, with a small arc coming out of the middle, curving above the top of the helmet.

* * *

 **Astral Angel Extra-Stern**

 **Attribute: LIGHT WATER/Type: Machine/Link/Effect**

 **L-Markers: Left, Bottom**

 **ATK: 1900/Link-2**

 **2 "Astral Angel" monsters**

 **Effect: If a LIGHT monster is Special Summoned to your zone this card points to: You add 1 "Fusion", or "Selig" Spell from your Deck or GY to your hand. If this card is in your GY: You can banish this card and 1 other "Astral Angel" monster from your GY, Special Summon 1 "Astral Angel" Fusion Monster from your Extra Deck that has "Selig Transformation" in its card text (That Special Summon is treated as a Summoning by the effect of "Selig Transformation".)**

* * *

"Now, since your Chaos Hunter is no more on the field, I can banish Astral Angel Pfleger from my Graveyard to revive her mentor right under Extra-Stern's Link Arrow!" A cross made of light appeared behind Avice's Link Monster and Astral Angel Wächter's arm tore through the ground to grab it. The cross began to glow brighter after this and flew upward, raising the monster's whole body onto the field. After his resurrection, Astral Angel Wächter put both of his swords in front of his body and fell onto his knees, a small hologram showing that it was in Defense Mode with 900 DEF.

"Because of Astral Call's effect, I put two Astral Counters on it when Astral Angel Pfleger got banished. I could finish you right here and now, but I'm going to let you entertain me for a bit." Avice said and took two cards from her hand, swiping them across the blade of her Duel Disk, setting the cards "One turn. That's how much you have to show me something noteworthy."

* * *

While Avice was dealing with the first henchmen, the second one seemed to have gotten lucky. Driving through the dark tunnels without realizing that his fate was sealed, the man was trying to get on the spot where his teammate told him to wait as soon as possible. Unfortunately, he was already overtaken and a glowing red dot was standing in front of him. Looking in the darkness, the man thought at first that this was some emergency light glowing in the distance, but then, the lights of the motorbike came to illuminate the body of the sixteen years old that stood in front of his vehicle.

The black D-Wheel came to a stop and the two glared at each other. Though the man remembered how easy that same boy was able to easily knocking him on the ground a few moments ago, they had already sealed all other tunnels. He had to go through Evan in order to continue.

"Why did you stop?" Evan asked, adopting a devilish grin. "You could just run me over, right? Or better… Kill me with the shadow card that you have!"

"W-what?" The boy knew about his shadow card?

"Don't be so surprised!" Evan shouted. The combination of the dark tunnels and the D-Wheel's front light, along with his hood, were giving the teenager a rather demonic look on his face, half of which was covered by shadows, with his right eye glowing in the darkness. "I could sense its presence from here! So use it! I got no Duel Disk or a Deck to protect myself with, a single blast would be enough to kill me off!"

This kid is crazy – was the conclusion that the henchman came to, but he had to pass anyways. Turning his D-Wheel around, the man drove off in the opposite direction to build a larger distance between the two of them.

"What are you doing?" Evan asked mockingly, standing still on his spot. "I thought we were just kids, so why are you running like you saw a ghost?"

But to Evan's surprise, the black D-Wheel suddenly turned around and charged straight toward him. Now he could see, the henchman wasn't trying to run away but catch a momentum. It was so funny! A twisted grin formed over Evan's face as he watched the D-Wheel coming closer to him. He was going to have so much fun dealing with this henchman!

"Dragonecro Nethersoul Dragon!" The man shouted as he swiped the card over the blade of his Duel Disk and the familiar dragon flew above the D-Wheel, already holding a ball of purple flames in its mouth.

Evan made no tries to avoid the attack whatsoever and the flames flew over his body, consuming him whole. Taking a direct hit like that from a monster whose flames were known to steal souls, would cause instant death to anyone. Only someone who lost the will to life, or was insane would remain in the path of Dragonecro's fire and it seemed that Evan was the second type. Confident that his foe was gone, the henchman accelerated forward, but the purple flames that his monster shot out suddenly began to change their color and became pitch black.

"Not bad!" Evan's voice came out of the flames. "But now it's my turn! Phantomus!"

The moment Evan said that name, the black flames raised, turning into the shade of a demon with two red eyes. The creature threw its head back and cried out before flying straight into Dragonecro. The black flames consumed the nethersoul dragon whole, its desperate cries muted by the black abyss of 'Phantomus' body. Realizing that he was set up, the henchman quickly turned his D-Wheel to flee, but the game was already over.

Phantomus roared and flew toward the man, hitting him with full force, just like a bullet. The burning demon grabbed its victim with enlarged claws made of black flames and slammed him into the ground with such a force that his helmet broke into pieces, revealing the man's bald, covered in tattoos head. The black D-Wheel continued to drive straight for fifteen seconds after its rider was brutally slammed into the ground, before finally hitting the wall.

After finishing its attack, the burning demon flew back to Evan, who absorbed its essence through his palm. Although shadow cards were dangerous to deal with, a much more dangerous concept were Duelists who could sense, and had a one hundred synergy rate with their Duel Spirit. These individuals didn't need things such as a Duel Disk or a physical copy of a card in order to summon the monster that they had synchronized with!

"Come on, put a bit of a fight, mate." fumed Evan. He couldn't beat that man in a Duel because his Duel Disk was left at a garage, but for criminals that put the entire Security station on high alert, he expected something more.

"What the hell are you? You… You monster!" The henchman screamed. These words caught the boy by surprise. Oh, so he was the bad guy in this situation? Even though his actions were actually helping society, there were still people that would criticize what he did? No, that wasn't criticism, and he wasn't a bad guy. Evan took the words of the henchman as a compliment, monsters weren't humans, and they were one step ahead in the evolution. Monsters were stronger than humans, better than humans. He was better than humanity, therefore he was a monster as well.

"If I'm a monster, then why don't you try to destroy me?" Evan asked. Wasn't that what humans were supposed to be doing? "You still have that knife of yours, right? I'm not going to use Phantomus or any other tricks, so let us fight like humans!"

"You are finished!" The henchman roared and stood back up. Despite the damage that he took from Evan's spirit, the man was still able to stand up and move. He was unsure what his chances were at this point, but despite what his mind told him, the henchman rushed toward Evan and swung his knife toward the boy's neck. One clear hit would be enough to kill Evan. Even if the strike didn't finish him immediately, the blood lost would put the Greyson down within seconds.

Evan breathed in and focused on the incoming attack.

" _First avoid the attack by ducking, then spin and hit him in the ribcage with the left fist. The moment gained from the spin along with the metal plating on by my left glove would be enough to make up for my inferior physical build and strength and fracture his ribs._

 _The pain will paralyze him for a moment after which he will try to slash at me again with the knife. Step back to create distance, then quickly respond with a jab from my left hand to break his nose and daze him. Use the moment to inflict several more hits to the body. Cornered, he will try to swing his knife again, employ armlock to right arm, then incapacitate by fracturing his shoulder. Use the moment when he is bent to finish with a knee to the face._

 _Results: nose broken, three ribs fractured, right shoulder dislocated. Physical state: incapacitate of entering combat. Metal state: traumatized."_

Evan breathed out - everything was ready. He ducked, avoiding the knife attack and then delivered a hard hit to the ribcage with his armored glove, emitting a loud groan of pain from the henchman. The man didn't have up though and quickly swung his knife again, this time aiming lower to make sure that Evan won't be able to duck under this strike as well. But his attack came a moment too late, since the boy had stepped away from the reach of the knife before delivering a strong him to the face.

The pain dazed the henchman who stepped back to try and retrieve while blood spilled from his broken nose. Using the momentarily opening, Evan stepped in and slammed his fists into the man's body, prompting him to try and swing the knife again, only to have Evan sidestep and the wrap his arms around the henchman's locking it. A moment later, the Greyson put his weight on the man's shoulder and then pulled his arm, the sound of something snapping became audible along with a cry of pain from the henchman, who dropped his weapon as a result of the pain.

Finally, Evan threw his knee up, meeting with the face of the bent forward man. The power behind that kick was enough to throw the older opponent backward onto the ground. With his opponent now incapacitated, Evan stepped back and kicked the knife away before fixing the ends of his jacket.

"It seems like I win again." Evan sighed, disappointed by his opponent's performance. "I know, you probably think of attacking me from behind, but…"

He didn't even need to look behind himself, the noise that the henchman made while trying to move with these injuries was enough to tell the Greyson that his opponent was forcing himself to stand back up. He looked at the boy and then at the knife lying on the ground a few feet away. Afterward, he spun around and ran away as quickly as possible.

Evan sighed, the conclusion was obvious, his enemy was already too wounded for a second round, both of them were aware of this fact. Running away was the only viable option left and Evan didn't have any reason to follow him. That man didn't seem like the type that would admit who hired him for that job, instead it would be more effective if he let him get away. His wounds would be a good enough warning for his bosses to stay away from this region.

 **BANG!**

The sound of a gunshot echoed through the empty tunnel. Evan looked down at the ground before slowly turned around, the henchman that he fought a moment ago was lying on the ground with a small puddle of blood already starting to form under the corpse. Evan scanned the area with his eyes, the echo inside the tunnel made it impossible to hear where the bullet came from. But no one else was in sight, there were no openings, no places to hide.

Slowly, Evan stepped toward the still warm corpse and kicked him on the shoulder, turning the body around. The bullet had hit right between the eyes of the victim, therefore the shot must have come from somewhere inside the tunnel.

"I guess you won't be needing this anymore." Evan said, more to himself that anyone else and slammed his boot onto the corpse's Duel Disk, breaking it. He reached out and took a card from the now exposed Extra Deck - it was Dragonecro Nethersoul Dragon.

"Now you are going to obey me." Black mist formed into the palm of Evan's hand and flew into the card, causing it to glow as the air around it burst into black flames that consumed the Fusion Monster.

"Release!" Several moments after Evan gave that order, white light burst from the card and flew through the roof of the tunnel. The still unconsumed souls of the victims were freed, now it was up to them to return back into their original bodies.

Evan put the card into his pocket and then turned toward the black D-Wheel that lied next to the wall. Although he already had his own, it wouldn't be enough they were really going to help Fujiko get out of this town. Evan stepped toward the fallen D-Wheel and raised it. Thankfully the crash didn't caused any serious damage, it was still functional.

* * *

"My turn!" The henchman shouted, drawing his fourth card. He looked over at Avice, her field had a Link Monster, a 2800 beater that could also destroy a monster every turn, a defense position monster and two set cards. Despite that, he could win! As long as neither of her set cards could counter Counter Traps…

 **『** **Turn 2 [Henchman] LP: 900 Hand: 4** **』**

"Come on, I will grow up while waiting for you!" Avice finally shouted, annoyed by how long it took her opponent. "If you don't have anything, then just fall on your knees and beg me for a painless death."

"You wish!" the henchman laughed maniacally. "I activate the spell card, _Change of Heart_ to take control of your fairy!"

"What?! But that's a banned card?" Avice's eyes widened. All Duel Disks had a built in system to recognize the usage of forbidden cards and cancel the duel when such a card was used.

But that never happened. Instead of cancelling the Duel, the Duel Disks allowed that move and several ghostly arms flew toward Sola Starlight the Titanic Destruction Seraph, capturing the monster. Avice couldn't do anything, but bit her lips while her ace was forcefully dragged to her opponent's side of the field and then forced to face against her.

"Why wasn't the duel cancelled when you used this card?" Avice asked her opponent.

"Because of the place where we are standing!" The henchman chuckled and pointed at the ceiling. "DL's system to enforce the latest banlist works through a satellite installation! Since we are so deep underground, the signal is unable to get to our Duel Disks and therefore there is no banlist to be enforced!"

"What a lowly trick!" Using banned cards to gain the advantage? Avice was going to make sure that the man's death was extra painful just for that.

"I'm going to activate the effect of Sola Starlight the Titanic Destruction Seraph to destroy Astral Angel Wächter and inflict three hundred points of damage to you!" The fairy flew up and fired several blades toward Avice's warrior.

"I activate the Quick-Play Spell, _**Selig Transformation**_! This spell lets me transform destroy Astral Angel Wächter into a new monster!" As the spell flipped face-up, the warrior jumped away from the blades and his body began to glow.

* * *

 **Selig Transform (Spell) Quick-Play**

 **Target 1 monster you control; send it to the Graveyard, also, after that, if it left the field by this effect, Special Summon 1 LIGHT Fusion monster from your Extra Deck whose Summoning Conditions are met by this card's effect.**

* * *

"Transform your monster?" the henchman took a step back. He had never heard of such an effect before…

"Yeah, this is more like a Fusion Summoning with only one Fusion Material, which is why it's called Transformation Summon instead of Fusion!" Avice explained and threw her right arm forward. "Let's go! Astral Angel Wächter, transform!"

The warrior put his swords together and his body began to fade away, leaving behind only the core, which changed its color.

"The warrior with blades sharper than stars! Transform into the abridger of wild energy, desired by the very creation itself! Transformation Summon! Level Five! Sacred Pegasus running through the Milk Way! _**Astral Angel Azurblauer Pegasus**_!"

As the core's color changed from blue to yellow, pieces of white metal flew around it and merged to form its new body. A pair of gigantic metal wings with golden plating at the ends of the primary feathers and the alula. Its legs were large bended blades with yellow energy spikes coming out of its shoulders. The head followed a similar pattern with a sharp muzzle and no mouth. A golden arc came out of the monster's forehead with yellow jewels framed into the arc itself. The monster descended down and landed in front of Avice with stardust falling from its wings.

* * *

 **Astral Angel Azurblauer Pegasus**

 **Level: 5/Attribute: LIGHT WIND/Type: Machine/Fusion/Effect**

 **ATK: 2200/DEF: 1600**

 **Effect: Must first be Special Summoned with a "Selig Transform" card by Tributing a Level 4 or lower "Astral Angel" monster you control. Once per turn, if an "Astral Angel" card you control would be destroyed by battle or card effects, you can destroy 1 card of the same type (Monster/Spell/Trap) your opponent controls. Once per Duel: You can turn 3 of your banished "Astral Angel" monsters face-down to target 1 face-up monster on the field; change the LP of either player to become equal to the current ATK of the targeted monster.**

* * *

"So you avoided that? Doesn't matter! I will use Sola Starlight the Titanic Destruction Seraph's effect to attack Astral Angel Extra-Stern during the Main Phase!" Sola Starlight the Titanic Destruction Seraph's eyes glowed and she leaped into the air, firing several more blades toward the Link Monster.

"I activate my trap, _Lumenize_ to negate the attack and increase Extra-Stern's attack by that of Sola!" A barrier of light appeared between the two monsters and pushed Sola away.

"Chain Link Two! I activate the Counter Trap Red Reboot from my hand! By paying half of my Life Points, this card negate your trap and reset it!" The henchman countered, shattering the barrier that protected Avice's monster. "Of course, you also get to set another trap from your deck, but neither of them can be activated during this turn!"

 **『** **Henchman LP: 900/2** → **450** **』**

With the barrier gone, Sola Starlight flew through the Link Monster, piercing its body with her wings. Avice gritted her teeth and fell down on her knees, blood pouring from a small slice on the side of her cheek.

 **『** **Avice LP: 4000 – 900** → **3100** **』**

"Ha…" Avice pressed her hand against the side of her cheek and looked at the blood on her fingers. "You were able to get a hit in after all, that was nice. But due to my Pegasus' effect, I can once per turn change the destruction to another card. So now, the Sola Starlight that you stole from me is going to be destroyed by her own attack!"

"Before that would happen, the effect of Van'Dalgyon the Dark Dragon Lord allows me to Special Summon it from my hand, when a Counter Trap of mine negates one of your cards!" The black dragon flew onto the field and roared, holding 2800 ATK. "Along with that I'm going to activate Mystik Wok to release Sola Starlight the Titanic Destruction Seraph and gain Life Points equal to her attack power!"

"I'm going to make you pay for shaming my best monster like that." Avice swore, dropping her ace card into the Graveyard slot along with Astral Angel Extra-Stern. Since there was no other monster to be destroyed in place of her Link at the moment of Pegasus' effect's activation, the Link Monster was destroyed as well.

 **『** **Henchman LP: 450 + 2800** → **3250** **』**

"Due to Van'Dalgyon the Dark Dragon Lord's additional effect, I get to activate an effect based on the negated card." The dragon raised its head and fired a fireball at Azurblauer Pegasus, destroying Avice's last line of defense. "Now, attack her directly!"

The dragon roared and fired another steam of fire straight at Avice. Even if this wasn't enough to take away all of her Life Points, the fact that she was taking a direct attack from a Shadow card meant that she might get killed if the flames weren't stopped. Jumping back to avoid the first wave, Avice leaped back into the air and made a backflip before landing down.

The dragon turned its eyes toward her and fired another wave of flames to incinerate the girl. Without much time to thought, Avice slide under the table and kicked it down to hide her from the flames. She leaned against the other side of the fallen table and breathed in relief. Her heart was racing from the sudden surge of adrenaline and her breathing became deeper.

 **『** **Avice LP: 3100 – 2800** → **300** **』**

"That was something." Avice breathed out in relief. Almost getting toasted by a dragon before she could finish the duel? Her opponent was probably too scared to lose, so he ordered his monster to finish her out like this. Such a dirty tactic. "Nice trick, but you are out of cards to use! It's my turn!"

 **『** **Turn 3 [Astral] LP: 300 Hand: 4** **』**

Avice looked at the cards in her hand and then stood up. She stretched out her right hand and dropped all of the cards on the ground. She didn't need any of those. Her declaration about this being the last turn was a solemn one, she didn't need anything more than the few cards which were already put in play.

"Here I go!" Avice declared. "I activate Astral Angel Extra-Stern's effect in my Graveyard! By banishing itself and Sola Starlight the Destruction Seraph I can Special Summon one Astral Angel Fusion Monster from my Extra Deck! Come out, _**Astral Angel Erinnert Träger**_!"

A tiny humanoid monster with comically big hands and feet landed on the field in front of Avice. The little monster was wearing a heavy green armor with yellow shoulder and knee pads. Its head was covered by a matching green helmet with a yellow visor that hide its glowing blue eyes behind it. The monster's long blue hair floated behind it while it carried a large green lance with a flag wrapped around its blade.

* * *

 **Astral Angel Erinnert Träger**

 **Level: 2/Attribute: LIGHT EARTH/Type: Fairy/Fusion/Effect**

 **ATK: 1200/DEF: 0**

 **Effect: Must first be Special Summoned with a "Selig Transform" card by Tributing an "Astral Angel" Effect Monster with 500 or less ATK that you control. Once per turn: You can banish 1 other "Astral Angel" you control or that is in your GY; Special Summon 1 of your banished LIGHT monsters. Once while this card is face-up on the field: You can turn 2 of your banished "Astral Angel" monsters face-down; until the end of your next turn, the ATK and DEF of all monsters you control become equal to the highest values on the field, and if they do, they cannot be targeted or destroyed by card effects.**

* * *

"I activate Erinnert Träger's effect! I banishAstral Angel Wächter from my Graveyard to revive _Sola Starlight the Destruction Seraph (Lv.6, ATK: 2500)_!" The little monster hit the ground with its lance and a blue flag showing two yellow stars merging together appeared on its weapon as Sola Starlight raised from an interdimensional vortex in the ground. "Finally, I activate the trap card that you put on my field last turn! _**Meta-Universe Reclamation**_! By dropping the attack power of Sola Starlight the Destruction Seraph to zero I revive _Astral Angel Azurblauer Pegasus (Lv.5, ATK: 2200)_!"

 **Sola Starlight the Destruction Seraph, ATK: 2500** → **0**

* * *

 **Meta-Universe Reclamation (Trap) Normal**

 **Activate this card by targeting 1 LIGHT monster on your field: Reduce that target's ATK to 0, and if you do, Special Summon 1 "Astral Angel" monster from your GY, whose ATK is equal to, or lower than the original ATK of the targeted monster. If this card is in your GY: You can target 1 of your banished "Astral Angel" monsters; Special Summon that target, but its ATK and DEF become 0.**

* * *

"If that fairy is your best monster, why would you reduce its attack power to zero?" the henchman questioned.

"Simple." Avice closed her eyes for a moment to focus and then gestured toward the Azurblauer Pegasus that she just revived. "Because Sola's attack needs to be zero in order to defeat you. I activate Azurblauer Pegasus' other effect! By turning three of my banished Astral Angels face-down, I can target a monster on the field and make the Life Points of one of us to match its attack power!"

"E-Equal?!" the henchman's eyes widened. According to the rules, if a player's Life Points reached zero, they would lose. Sola Starlight's current attack points were zero, which meant… "W-wait! I can tell you what was written on the letter!"

"Heh, I told you that you will be begging for mercy by the end of this duel." Avice spat, disgusted by the man before her. "Too bad, you should have accepted my offer from the very beginning. Now it's too late!"

"Don't you want to learn what was inside that letter?" The man shouted at her and fell on his knees. "I'm going to tell you, I will tell you everything!"

This made Avice giggle, before she knew it, she had burst into maniacal laughter. Why were humans so pathetic, unable to accept the fate that they brought upon themselves? Even pigs were more self-aware that them. It was so funny, but also so disgusting to watch them fall on their knees, beg for mercy while crying out their eyes. Men, women, children, they always reacted this way and it became boring very fast.

But that satisfaction when she makes them shut up, watching the spark of life slowly leave their eyes, the last choking sounds they make before their bodies went limp. There pigs were so pathetic that they made her addicted to killing them! Just the thought how she was going to finish off this pathetic excuse of a living organism made her blood burn in excitement. It was so heated up, that she had to unbutton her white jacket.

"You think that I need you in order to learn what's inside that letter?" Avice finally asked her opponent. "The only reason why I suggested to spare your live at the start was because I wanted to show some mercy." She licker her lips like a predator about to jump on his snack. "The monsters that live inside of my deck, the Astral Angels, love to eat the souls of the death. In addition to that, they are very good at reading memories. The host's heart doesn't even need to be beating in order for them to learn all of the secrets hidden in the darkest angles of their mind. In other words, dead or alive, you are going to be of the same use for me."

"O-of same use… D-d-d-dead or alive…" the henchman fell on his knees, terrified by the little girl standing in front of him.

"Let's not waste anymore of my time then. May God's salvation burns your soul to ashes, before it reaches the gates of Hell!" Avice shouted and clenched her right hand into a fist. "Go, Azurblauer Pegasus! _**Spatial Distortion**_!" The Pegasus spread its wings and a large halo formed between them. Sola Starlight flew through the ring and fired a beam of hard light that pierced through the man's chest, carving a hole in the size of a watermelon where his heart was supposed to be. Or used to be.

 **『** **Henchman LP: 3250** → **0** **』**

 **『** **Winner: Avice** **』**

After the henchman's limp body fell on the ground, Avice collected back all of her cards and walked over to the corpse. She kneeled next to it and put her right hand on the man's forehead. The spirits momentarily went to work, absorbing the dead man's memories. Although the whole process took no more than three seconds, Avice's spirits had to look through every single moment of the man's life and then filter them, so that only the ones needed by their master was sent into her head while everything else was torn and absorbed by the spirits, including the man's soul.

A human would never know if souls were able to bleed, but this one definitely did while it got torn to pieces and consumed by all of the spirits living inside Avice's Duel Disk. She could see it from the dead man's perspective. How he was handled the already open letter by his teammate, the text in it. Two words from the message stood out for Avice.

...' _Easthaven City_ '

After she finished with her 'research', Avice took the Van'Dalgyon the Dark Dragon Lord from the corpse's Duel Disk and used her powers to free all of the souls that the dragon was unable to consume yet. She put the card into her pocket after every single soul was freed and then turned toward the tunnel on her right, where Evan was already waiting for her on top of the black D-Wheel.

"Took you long enough." Evan smirked.

"Well, I'm a busy girl." Avice shot back and walked over to him.

* * *

"How's everyone?" Denver asked.

He didn't know how, but just when the possessed Duel Chasers had surrounded them and were about to kill them, the entire group of possessed collapsed one after another and the mist around their eyes disappear. Was it a miracle sent by god that saved them? It might as well have been, given how close they were to actually dying.

"Bliz and Yonk are stable!" One of the Security officers stated, currently taking care of two collapsed Duel Chasers along with his colleagues.

"Colt is dead sir." Another officer pointed out. Unfortunately, none of the officers that were killed by the possessed and then turned into possessed themselves were going to come back. Guess God didn't care how you died, there were no second chances for those who fell once.

"As long as the others are fine, we will manage somehow." Denver sighed. It was never easy to hear that an officer, a man that he was responsible for, died. But he somehow managed to accept it and move forward - if he didn't then who would? As a Security Captain it was his responsibility to look not only after his men, but after the entire town.

"Something is coming from the tunnel!" One of the officers shouted.

Denver's eyes widened. Were they coming back for another attack? All of the officers that were still able to hold a gun moved to take cover and aimed their guns toward the tunnel. They couldn't see anything in the darkness, but there was an orb of light coming from somewhere inside the subway. This time they were ready to take whatever the enemy had to throw at them.

"What's with the scary faces?" Denver immediately recognized the voice and the black D-Wheel drove out of the subway, stopping under the moonlight.

"Don't shot!" Denver shouted at his men. "They aren't dangerous, put your guns down!"

The officers were confused by their captain's sudden change of heart, but they complied and lowered their guns. After making sure than everyone heard his order, Denver turned and looked down at Evan and Avice who were riding the black D-Wheel.

"Both of your fugitives were killed before we could get to them." Evan spoke up before the captain could. "One of them is in underground area BYOD-Nine-One-Four while the other is in the tunnel between districts Eleven B and Twelve C. Causes of death are a bullet in the head and a… huge hole where the heart was supposed to be."

"So we are empty handed again?" Denver asked. He was relieved to hear that these criminals were no more, but he wanted to interrogate them, learn why they were willing to take away so many lives. "I will send a team to look for the killers."

"I would advise you against that." Evan replied. "If someone was able to kill the men that your officers were unable to arrest, it's safe to believe that the killer is even more dangerous."

Denver could see the logic behind Evan's words. Those weren't men that you could just walk over to and shot them in the head. Only a professional would be able to get such a task done.

"So, as reward for sort-of solving this case, I'm going to take the D-Wheel." Evan pated the motorbike. "It's a fair deal, right?"

"Sorry, but that D-Wheel is a clue." Denver pointed out. "You can't take it."

"Oh don't worry, you can give it after getting a look at it." Evan shrugged and jumped off it with his sister following suit. "Just make sure to send it to the old garages at the center of the city, one of them belongs to a girl called Fujiko."

"Fujiko?" Denver repeated the name. Where has he heard it before… "Are you talking about Fujiko Itou? A Japanese girl? The daughter of Kyou Itou?"

"Kyou Itou?" This time it was Evan's turn to repeat the name.

He remember that name, there were some old articles mentioning that man. From what he these articles stated, Kyou Itou was a scientist, one of the highest regarded ones in his area of research. However, after an incident with the testing of a new Momentum Core caused an entire city to go under water, and more than ninety-three million died, he suddenly disappeared from the scientist circles and was never seen again. To think that Kyou Itou would come in this town of all places in order to escape from his past…

Fujiko's family tree only increased her value in the eyes of the siblings. As the daughter of such a well-known scientist, she might know a thing or two herself. Only time would tell, but it would be such a shame if her family tree had to end with her.

"That's exactly who I want you to send the D-Wheel to." Evan nodded and looked back into the dark tunnel that they came out from. "Also if you won't mind, tell Fujiko where to find us tomorrow morning."

* * *

"There you two are…" Fujiko sighed in relief. She had gotten worried when the Greysons didn't show up to look for their D-Wheel last night. Her worries increased when she heard that there was another attack and her mind began to think that maybe the siblings fell victims. She was relieved of her worries when a Security officer came to her early that morning to give her a black D-Wheel along with a message.

That message was to meet with Evan and Avice at the beach after Valt Evernon, and so she did. Fujiko stepped slowly through the soft sand, making her way toward a pile for large rocks, which were the seat of the siblings. Even when she spoke up to them, neither Avice, nor Evan, seemed to have noticed her presence, or, they simply didn't care enough to look at her. It made her curious as to what might have caught their interest so much, so she tried to climb up the rocks and join the siblings. It wasn't easy at first, since the rocks were slippery, but after three minutes of trying, she was finally able to climb up.

Breathing softly, Fujiko sat down next to Evan. The boy was sitting on one of the lower rocks toward the sea with his head leaning against one of the rocks behind him while his arms gently wrapped around the waist of his sister, who was sitting in his lap. Avice was lying lazily into her brother's arms with her head pressing against his chin.

"Isn't it beautiful?" Avice suddenly asked. Whenever that question was meant for Fujiko or Evan, the wannabe engineer was unsure, but she looked at the sea as well. Her eyes warmed up at the picture that formed in front of her, the dazzling light of the rising sun had coated the water surface, creating a pathway of light on top of it. Despite how close the breach was to Valt Evernon, there were no black clouds from the nearby factories to cover the sun and even the water looked clear, like a diamond.

"So…" Fujiko wondered how to say the thing that was on her mind. It would come out awkward if she asked them while they enjoyed the sunrise, but her curiosity got the better out of her. "Did you two have something to do with the announcement that the attackers were found?"

"Well, you helped us as well." Evan muttered. "But yes, we were the ones who found them. I have to say, I expected more than a group of petty thieves." He pulled the Van'Dalgyon the Dark Dragon Lord and Dragonecro Nethersoul Dragon from his pocket. "With the power of these cards there is so much more than they could have done instead of stealing parts from different factories."

"Stealing parts, huh?" Fujiko had to admit, that did sound pretty boring. "But what about the people that fell into a coma?"

"Most of them wake up already." Avice replied. Those whose souls haven't been consumed by the dragons already would life, and those whose souls were no longer would become the last victims of the monsters. "Apparently the attacks on people and security were just a side task."

"I see…" Fujiko nodded and leaned against a rock as well. "But what happened with the stolen parts? Were they ever found?"

"No, they were taken out of the city a long time ago by a third culprit." Evan closed his eyes. "It was obvious since we didn't find any parts in their hideout and carrying these items with themselves on the raids would be too troublesome, so a third person took the pieces before they fell into our ambush. The helper probably came into and out of the town through one of the unsealed tunnels to avoid catching Security's attention."

"And how can you be sure that this theory is correct?" Fujiko questioned him. "For all we know, they might have just hidden the parts somewhere else."

"Simple." Evan opened his eyes again and looked at the girl. "I know it the same way I know that right now you are wearing white panties with pink flowers."

Fujiko quickly wrapped her arms around her body and looked down. She was wearing a riding suit, not a skirt, so how could he tell? The extreme confusion that she felt was only matched by her embarrassment. All she could do was glare at Evan angrily while flushed from ear to ear.

 **SLAP!**

"…Ouch."


	3. In the Life of a Princess

**Its a bit ironic that despite me saying that this will be just a collection of separate stories, this chapters ended up to directly tie with the aftermath of the previous one. Like with the previous two, this one is more of an introduction focused around our third protagonist (because having three protagonists is kind of my thing at this point) Roxy!**

* * *

One could not help, but shake his head when thinking about the brilliance of human's mind. No other known living being was, or would ever be able to reach the achievements of humans' genius mind, from building cities, to reaching the stars, nothing was beyond the reach of man. But out of all humanity has done, the creation of another world, another reality, must be their greatest invention yet. The creation of digital worlds and VR technology through which humans could transport their minds into those words, set a new age in the development of man, maybe even put the first step to their this species' next evolution.

Many companies across the globe began to perfect the VR technology in their own image, building their own worlds for the rest of humanity to roam and build upon. Many of those digital worlds were created with a certain… idea in mind - giving Duel Monsters a life in a way not seen before. Going through all of the different digital worlds built in the image of Duel Monsters would a tad too long, so instead, to move to story forward, we would only look at one of those worlds.

Out of all those digital globes created by the hand of a human, none came as close to creating a link between humanity and the amazing world of Dueling Monsters as Dueling Dungeon Nexus did. The virtual world was separated in six areas: The Obscrumorus – World of Darkness, Lumique – Domain of Light, Vitanima – Kingdom of Earth, Aurus en Galius – Land of Wind, Ashed Valley – Empire of Fire, and Briozios – Region of Water. All of these places were completely unique and served as home for the creatures of a certain attribute.

Something that made this game unlike most other dungeon games was that this one didn't have levels and players could roam through any place of the virtual world whenever they wanted. Along with that, most of the quests were randomly generated to ensure that players wouldn't get bored of playing the same missions over and over again. These quests could range from small dungeon raids to full-scale wars and pushing back invading forces. The world itself was meant to be dynamic, with actions done by players or the monsters that roamed the world being able to cause the terrain or other monsters' behavior to change, which in turn affected the quest generator.

Despite the troubles that some critics and players expected this system to create by making every player's experience completely different from one another, the fact that the most important points, the Duel Points, were acquired through dueling with other players made it so that most players used the game as a social network and the exploration of the game was left to adventures and special show owners that found, created and sold useful equipment and materials they found in the huge world of Dueling Dungeon.

Tony was a 21 years old merchant who first joined the game in order to become a Dueling Champion, a dream that came to its premature end after his brutal defeat by the hands of the 'Ice Princess' in the very first match of the very first tournament that he participle into. Long story short, after suffering from depression, the young man eventually found his true purpose as being a merchant. A job that was actually paying him well, despite the equipment that he sold being nothing more than mere data in a video game.

And with the current job that he took, he was going to make the money of his lifetime. While traveling through Obscrumorus, he came across that random question, the completion of which would reward him with 'The Sword of Decayed King', a SSSS+ equipment, one of, if not the, most powerful and rare king of equipment a player could get.

So there he was good old Toby, scaling the wall of a dark tomb. The night-vision enchantment that he brought last week finally got to show how useful it was, acting as the only object that allowed the merchant to see in this dark tomb.

Toby had to be very careful where he was stepping, one wrong move was enough to let his body fall from the wall he was climbing and onto the sharp spikes below. Of course, the worst that could happen in such a situation was failing the mission – if there was one good thing about the virtual world, it was that death wasn't permanent for the player.

Well, at least most of the time.

Usually,

…If the player was lucky enough or the main protagonist of the story.

'The game developers must have put a lot of time designing this mission.' Tony thought to himself. 'I mean, even though it's so dark that I can't see before me nose without night vision, they still went and added those models resembling dead players sticking from the spikes to make it look like I'm not the first one doing this mission.'

As he kept going on, suddenly something unexpected happened. The rock that he reached to grab, suddenly fell off, collapsing a good section of the area in front of Tony. Luckily, the merchant himself was brave and fast enough to grab onto another rock and not fall down, but now his only way across was destroyed, which sucked.

"Just your luck, Tony." He muttered to himself. "Now you will have to go all the way back to the start and climb the other wall. Actually, is there a set time for which I must get across before the wall collapses? If I'm too slow on the next one, it might as well be game over for me."

Tony quickly turned around and tried to move, when suddenly something caught his leg. Looking down, the duelist saw the arm of one of the decomposing bodies holding loosely onto him.

"That scared me for a bit." Tony sighed. "I'm really starting to get scared of this place, what the fuck?"

Tony felt a shiver go down his back, as the temperature seemed to be dropping. A growing sense of dread festered inside his stomach, and he finally began to wonder, who would put an SSSS+ weapon in a random generated mission. He frantically began to climb back toward the exit.

Only to find that a good portion of the sticking out rocks that he held onto while climbing weren't there anymore, making it impossible for him to get across.

Tony froze once again. He was trapped. Slowly, he turned his head to look down at the corpses, none of them was moving, so that was good. He let out a tiny sigh of relief, and almost immediately, two red orbs flew open from in the darkness right in front of him.

Tony's scream was cut short.

* * *

"Good morning everyone." A worn-out Roxy greeted everyone half-heartedly that was already in the dining room.

Fujiko greeted the young girl with a worried expression, while Evan and Avice simply looked up from their tablet and phone respectively, acknowledging Roxy's presence before returning back to what they were doing. Not many words were exchanged before these four until Roxy grabbed something to eat from the fridge and sat down on the huge table, sitting right across the Greysons.

"Are you sick?" Fujiko immediately asked. "You don't look very… well."

"I couldn't sleep last night." Roxy dismissed the question. "And before you ask, no, it wasn't because of a nightmare. It was because of her."

Saying this, Roxy raised her spoon to point directly at Avice. The white haired girl, already knowing her guilt about what happened last night, responded with just a wink.

"I know that I'm new here, and I don't want to cross the boundaries of what I'm allowed to ask, but, do I want to know what exactly you are referring to?" Fujiko immediately followed with a second question.

"It only depends on whenever you want to hear about our regular kinky night activities."

"AVICE!"

The young Greyson chuckled to herself, watching as a tomato-red Roxy was struggling to NOT throw her plate at the former's face.

"Wait, so you two are…" Fujiko's eyes widened at the realization, her eyes turning rapidly to look between the two girls. On the one side there was the smug Avice and on the other was a crimson-colored Roxy trying to hide her face with a plate out of embarrassment.

"…In the middle of a breakfast." Evan interrupted, his usual stoic expression having slightly shifted to convey a more annoyed state. "So, unless we are having a contest to see who would throw up first, I suggest we leave talks like this for after everyone else's done eating."

"Message received." Fujiko nodded in understatement and turned back toward her food.

"So, plans for today?" Avice asked, eyeing her older brother.

"I found a garage that Fujiko could use to start her business." These words coughed the older girl's attention as she turned to look at him. "We'll go take a look after school, if you like it, we'll buy it, and I'll deal with the paperwork, so you can start your business."

"Wow." Fujiko wasn't able to say anything. Even though Evan did make a promise to her, she didn't expect him to be able to find her a place to work in only two days. It made her feel so happy, she didn't know how she would ever be able to make up for everything that the Greyson did for her in such a short period of time.

Avice sighed a little in disappointment and leaned back into her chair. "I've still got to make the artworks for three more cards, the deadline of which is Friday, so I'm going to be busy as well. Perhaps Roxy would be the one making dinner today?"

"Just don't expect anything fancy, I'm not a great cook." Roxy commented.

That was what living in this house was like; sharing responsibility. Despite the crazy amount of money that the Greysons had, they never used it to hire a maid or someone to take care of the house in their place. It was a general rule that cooking, clearing, repairing, everything was done by those living in the house, no matter if they were the owners (Evan and Avice) or just roomer (Roxy and Fujiko).

"No one here likes fancy dinners anyway." Evan stood up and turned to leave, leaving his plate with half eaten fried eggs. Fujiko was about to ask him if he wasn't going to eat the rest, but she was quickly stopped when she saw Proxy shaking her head.

Fujiko sighed and turned once more toward the table. Although she was grateful to the Greysons for everything they did, at times she couldn't help but wonder what exactly was going in their heads and why she had that strange feeling of dread creeping toward her, every time that she thought about them.

* * *

Later that day, Roxy walked through the corridors of her school. Break had already started and most students have already left to go visit the shops at the park, to chat with their friends, or to just study in the library. Roxy was about to meet with some of her friends as well, but after few things happened earlier at school, her mood wasn't as cheerful as it was usually. The reason for that was the paper that she was holding in her hand, one that had the letter 'C' written in red. She couldn't even say that this was Avice's fault because this was from an exam that she had last week.

'My marks are starting to get bad again.' Proxy thought, stuffing the paper into her bag. 'Usually I had Elizabeth to help me out with studying, but now that she left I'm screwed. Hopefully Evan win't mind taking her place… Who am I kidding, he'll probably just ignore me if I ask for help.'

The girl sighed. Why did it have to be the one Greyson that had any heart in their chest, to leave this city? She could still ask some of her other, older friends for help, but she found it hard to believe that anyone of them would do a good job as a teacher. There was a reason why after Evan and Avice taught them how to duel. She, Takuma, Vermilya and the rest of the Gear Squad began such a skilled dueling force. Not just experience, Evan and Avice had their own way to teach and, despite how brutal it was, it worked out every time, so if they were so good at teaching dueling, then they should be good at teaching other things as well, right?

"H-hey, what's going on here?"

Roxy stopped for a moment and turned toward the voice. She saw an almost empty classroom – almost because the only ones inside were a boy with glasses, a woman, who from the look of it was a teacher, and Jeff the Janitor. Noting that she wasn't spotted yet, the young girl stepped back, to get cover behind the door and listened to what was going inside.

"I'm sorry Jean, but the school can't sponsor your club anymore." The teacher said. "You are the only member, we gave you two months to find other kids who would be interested in joining, but it just doesn't work."

"You don't understand Miss Valley! I'm working on a software that would do great things!" the student, Jean, responded. "I just need a bit more time to finish it! A week!"

"We just can't let you use the school computers anymore." Miss Valley sighed. "But I might be able to work out anything if that new software you are working on turns out to be effective as you say. However, I'm going to need prove before that."

"But the software's data is too big for my computer at home to handle, I need to use these, please Miss Valley, just a week more!"

At this point Roxy couldn't listen anymore. She looked at the small plate on the door, it read 'Tech Club'. She sighed, there were many people who worked with computers, but she doubted that anyone would be interested in joining this club anyway. From what she heard, it also sounded like this Jean-guy made the club just to get access to the school's computers, not to share his hobby with others.

"It's always sad when people's dreams have to end this way." Proxy whispered and ran off before anyone catch her eavesdropping on that conversation.

* * *

Café Delish was the place where Roxy's small group of friends always meet during school days. It was right next to the mall and just a few meters away from their schools, so they spent most of their free time there. Whenever it was hot like in the desert, or it was raining, they were always there, talking, laughing, and sharing information about their more important work outside school. Sadly though, their group shrunk a bit with Elizabeth's departure and strangely enough Avice and Levant weren't with them either.

"So, I heard that our school-years will end with a ceremony in the sports hall next Thursday." Vermilya said leaning back into her chair, with her arms behind her head. "The Student Council is busy making preparations, so that's why Levant won't be able to join us today."

"It's not a problem." Evan responded, sounding just as uninterested and emotionless as ever. "He messaged me to say that the results from the job I asked him to do will be sent to my email later tonight."

"And what fishy work did you get yourself involved into this time?" Takuma raised an eyebrow. "You won't send us to clear your messes again, are you?"

"It's about what happened in Valt Evernon." Evan's words, as if through magic, caused everyone else to become serious.

"Three thieves, two in body bags, one at the loss." Takuma repeated what Evan told him about their adventure in that city. "Are you worried? We've been hunting all sort of dangerous individuals, and paranormal creatures practically since you gave us our decks. Do you think that we won't be able to handle this one?"

"I'm not worried that you won't be able to handle it." No, there was something else that was on Evan's mind. "We got more than one thing to deal with this time, we'll have to take a more careful approach when dividing our forces across the different cases."

"Was there another hit in Nexus?" Roxy asked the question directly. It wasn't like Evan to worry about man-power. Heck, he and Avice would most likely deal with everything on their own, they just didn't want to do it.

Instead of answering, Evan pulled out his tablet and put it on the table, with a news site already open. "The body of merchant who goes by the username ShadowRide74 in the game was found in a state similar to a coma by his younger brother. Like previous victims, he has no brain activity and his profile can't be deleted from the system."

"Your company is already being investigated for what happened, isn't it?" Vermilya shook her head. "Sorry, we've been login into Nexus every day, trying to catch the culprit, but we still haven't gotten any leads on it."

"It's not your fault." Evan shook his head. He couldn't blame them for what was happening, they were doing the best they could in order to help him put an end to these mysterious 'deaths'. "If I had any leads I wouldn't have ended this madness already, but right now I'm as helpless as the rest of you."

"You know…" Roxy muttered. "Today I happened to overhear a conversation. There's some boy in my school who's apparently good with technologies. Today I heard that his club was being closed due to lack of members. Maybe, we could have him help out. From what I gathered, he cares more about the computers that the schools lets him borrow than about the club itself, so…"

"He helps us and Evan buys him one of the best computers there are as a Thank You gift!" Takuma exclaimed, clapping at the idea. "You are rich with money from five different companies, plus the one you are working for, and the government money that you get for dealing with the more… problematic threats. A few thousand would be like a pocket change for you, won't it?"

"I'll look into it." Evan said. "But I must research that boy first, make sure that he's trustworthy. Do you know his name, Roxy?"

"Jean. Didn't learn his family name though. I could still try and get close to him if you want me to." Roxy had no problem with it, during the time that she spent with this group, she learned how to mimic and cover her emotions for the sake of the mission. She could do this with ease.

"Do so." Evan then turned toward the other two. "There's some business I must deal with after school, so it's most likely that I won't be able to respond to calls until around nine."

"Heh, dog." Takuma chuckled, catching the other boy's attention. "What? Even the rest of the school is starting to catch on your fame with the ladies."

"My relationship with Fujiko is purely professional." Evan retorted. "She has useful skills as an engineer, that's the only reason I pulled her out of that shithole she called home."

"Now we must only wait to see if she thinks the same way." Takuma smirked.

"Since we are already talking about this, I made a bet with Levant that you will sleep with the Student Council President by the end of the year, so could you do a favor to a friend and get to it?" Vermilya laughed, patting Evan's shoulder.

The Greyson rolled his eyes, they were joking with him alright. He didn't mind them having their fun, but he was a busy person and didn't have time for their childish bets, not that he would have cared even if he had the time for that. He drank his remaining coffee in one gulp and put down enough money to pay for everyone else's drinks before walking off. After their mentor left, Roxy, Takuma and Vermilya looked at each other.

"Do you think he got angry with us?" Vermilya asked the others.

"Maybe annoyed, but definitely not angry." Roxy answered. "Otherwise he wouldn't pay for our drinks too."

"We should follow soon. Classes will start in ten minutes." Takuma informed.

"Would you mind driving me home after school?" Roxy asked; Takuma was the only one of the three that had a D-Wheel and a license to drive it. She would usually ask Evan, but he would be busy tonight, so Takuma was her only alternative option.

"My classes end after yours, so you're going to have to wait for a bit." Takuma smiled and patted her head.

Roxy sighed at being patted again, but then smiled. It was true that this wasn't the biggest or the coolest group of friends to have, but she wouldn't have it another way. Better a few loyal friends that many royal ones.

* * *

It was night in Easthaven, the sky above the city was covered in darkness, but the streets were still as lively as they were during the day. It was a sprawling complex of lights – a constant reminder of Roxy for a long forgotten dream of hers, of all the happy memories and… a tragedy.

"Are you done?"

Roxy jumped, scared from the voice that suddenly called from behind her. She turned on her heel and looked at Takuma, nodding. Though she asked for him to only drive her home from school, she was the one who would be cooking tonight, so she ended up requesting for Takuma to accompany her on the small shopping trip. Not surprising at all, he accepted to go with her since he was running low on food as well. She took a careful look at him, the small plastic bag that he was carrying, the goods in it wouldn't be enough for more than two days, unlike her two full bags filled with good for an entire week.

The way that he was rationing his money reminded Roxy of Evan. Despite him having around a billion in his bank account, Evan didn't like to waste money on luxury. He only ate cheap food instead of eating at expensive restaurants, he always dressed in regular clothes instead of fancy suits, when he needed something, he would build it himself instead of buying it. Despite that, he always gave his subordinates the best he could. Food, clothes, even a job and a future. That was something she could never understand about Evan and Avice. They were cruel, heartless, they could easily distant themselves from emotions when it came down to make a hard decision, they saw the world as a sandbox, humans as guinea pigs, yet they treated those connected to them as a family.

It wasn't far from absurd to think that way, but for Roxy, Evan and Avice were almost like parents. They were monsters with the blood of countless people on their hands, but they were also the ones who took her, who took everyone in their group and guided them toward the light. So, it wasn't just Takuma. She, Vermilya, all those homeless, parentless, hopeless young people that the Greyson took under their wings were slowly starting to turn into the Greysons. It wasn't big changes, but small ones. Their mannerism, their habits, all of those were subconsciously becoming similar to Evan and Avice's. Yet, she didn't mind that.

Roxy smiled at the thought. She put her bags on the register and pulled out the money to pay once everything was registered. She turned back for a bit to make sure that Takuma was right behind her.

"You seem to be thinking about something." Takuma noted. "Something you want to share?"

"It's nothing important at all." Roxy shook her head. "Don't you sometime have the feelings that you are turning into Evan?"

"Only in my worst nightmares." Takuma joked, getting a cold stare in return.

"Can't you give a serious answer for once?" Roxy pouted; Takuma was always like that, acting the most immature despite being older than most of the others in their group.

"Sorry, sorry. If you want a honest answer… Yes, I do feel that way sometimes. I hate it, really. The idea of being like him, being a heartless monster running only on his desire to cause harm to the world. I don't want to be anything like him, to have a god-complex, to… to have that darkness which drives him to sacrifice everything for the sake of his mission. Despite that… I realize that if he wasn't there, if he didn't give me a hand when I was defeat, I would never be standing here, with you and everyone else."

"No heart, no fear, no sense of guilt." Roxy looked at the window, at the darkness dwelling outside the shop. "Isn't it ironic that someone like him could get such different people like us so close? Almost, like a family?"

"Don't think too much about it." Takuma ran a hand through Roxy's hair, messing it up.

"H-hey!" Roxy glared back at the older boy, then suddenly smiled. Despite how angry she looked on the outside, she couldn't drive herself to stay mad at him for too long.

"If you don't like it, then why don't you start put on a hood like your dark knight?" Takuma joked.

"Yeah, bully the small one – it's very funny." Roxy rolled her eyes, paying for her goods. She grabbed the two bags and stepped aside to let Takuma pay for his stuff, while she waited for him.

"Weren't you the one talking about how we're similar to your knight?"

"Well… I don't have anything to respond with on this one." Roxy sighed.

Takuma smiled at his small victory as he gave the cashier the money and grabbed his bag. He stepped past Roxy and the two of them walked out of the store and into the night streets. They headed toward Takuma's parked D-Wheel, neither of them saying anything until Roxy noticed something. A boy with glasses – standing at the corner of an alley with some device in his hand.

"What are you looking at?" Takuma stopped and turned back.

"That's Jean." Roxy's eyes widened – she recognized the boy! "He's the one I was talking about earlier today!"

"That's him?" Takuma pointed at the boy in the other end of the street. "Funny, he looks just like I expected – a loser."

"Should I try and talk with him? It's getting a bit late." Roxy wondered; she could always meet him at school, so she didn't need to push her luck.

And then darkness suddenly fell over the city. All the lights, street lamps, street lights, everything turned off, as pitch black darkness engulfed the streets. Next, the alarms of all cars around them went off. Roxy gasped and stepped back, people were shouting or crying, she could hear the sound of tires screeching and two light appears before her.

Roxy's eyes widened, despite the bright lights, the loud noise and the feeling of danger creeping up her spine, she didn't move. Her body was frozen; she couldn't make a step! It was like that night. She was reliving that nightmare for a second time. The bright lights, the loud noise, the surrounding darkness, it was all like that night.

"Roxy!"

Before the car could drive over the young girl, Takuma jumped in front of her, pushing both himself and Roxy out of the car's way as it sped by and crashed into the shop behind them. Roxy gasped for breath and looked put a hand over her racing heart. She was so close to that time…

"Are you ok, Roxy?" The girl looked at Takuma, but she couldn't find the voice to respond. The only thing she could do, was raise her trembling arm and gesture toward the card that almost drove over them.

"Take deep breaths." Takuma cupped her cheek and smiled. "I'm here, so it's fine. You are fine."

Roxy did so, taking deep breaths, trying to calm herself down, but the image of the lights just wouldn't leave her mind. She grabbed Takuma's hand subconsciously and kept looking at his face, trying to forget that nightmarish image.

* * *

"Do we know how many people suffered from that incident?"

Evan looked over Vermilya after she asked him a question. He lowered his head and shook his head.

Everyone was in the mansion, the safest place during the blackout that took place just two hours ago. They were sitting in the guest room, looking at the large screen on the wall and the news covering the incident in Easthaven. Avice handled Roxy a glass of water, helping the trembling girl to hold it.

"Come now, small sips." Avice whispered softly and helped guide the glass toward the frightened girl's lips. They already gave her medications – sleeping pills.

"This couldn't be a normal Blackout." Takuma rubbed his chin. "When I grabbed that bastard who almost ran Roxy over, he was panicked as well, his car has gone out of control."

"You think that this was the work of a human?" Vermilya questioned.

"There were no storms, no reason for a Blackout of that caliber, a human culprit is our best bet." Takuma explained himself. "What about you boss? What's your take on this?"

"It was unexpected, came out of nowhere. Can't be a coincidence." Evan ran a hand through his hair. That was the last thing he needed to happen, an accident like this in addition to the other cases that he was working on – it was too much to handle all at once.

"Wait, everyone!" Vermilya pointed at the screen. "Listen to the reporter!"

" _The police still isn't giving an official list of the victims of this incident, but our sources say that there are at least seven confirmed deaths."_ The reporter explained as she walked toward one of the police officers trying to calm down the citizen. " _Sir! Sir! It's Cassie from Channel F, can you tell us something more about this blackout? Is there any process in the investigation of what caused all the electricity across the city to suddenly turn off?"_

" _I'm sorry, I'm not authorized to answer questions."_ The officer pushed away the microphone.

"Please, just one question. The people have the right to know!" the reporter kept trying, but no matter how much she tried, the officer kept pushing back the microphone.

" _Sorry, you can ask questions only the chief. I'm at work right now."_

" _Tomas!"_ Another officer suddenly came into the camera's range. " _We're ordered to move Whitestreet, a robbery."_

"A robbery?" Takuma repeated. "The blackout was only thirty minutes and the streets were in complete chaos during that time. When did they find time to steal?"

"Thirty minutes isn't enough if the robbery wasn't planned beforehand, which means that the robbers must have expected the Blackout." Evan guessed.

"And Whitestreet, it was just one street away from the one on which me and Roxy shopped." Takuma slammed his fist into the table.

"I'll ask Levant to see if he'll be able to get more information about the robberies done during the Blackout." Evan pulled out his Duel Disk and began to scroll through his contacts. "We'll talk about this again tomorrow morning, understood?"

"Then me and Vermilya will stay here for the night if you don't mind. I'm still not sure about going out there after what happened." Takuma looked back at Roxy.

The sleeping pills have taken effects and the girl fell into a slumber with her head resting on Avice's legs. At least in her sleep, her face appeared to be calm. Evan glanced at the sleeping girl for a moment as well before nodding.

"Feel at home."

* * *

A new day began and as usual, everyone in the Greyson mansion had come to have a breakfast together, like a big family. Specially for their 'guests' Evan and Avice were the ones who cooked that morning, making macaroni of all things. Although not a very common dish to serve for breakfast, Vermilya immediately digged in, eating two portions in record time and quickly asking for a third. While everyone else was in a hurry to finish their food before Vermilya ate everything, Takuma turned toward Evan and asked a serious question.

"So, did Levant do his job?"

The white haired duelist nodded without speaking. Even though it was late at night, Levant still completed the mission he was given, managing to somehow hack into the police's servers and got all the information about crimes committed last night.

"The robbery at Whitestreet was the only one last night." Evan told them. "The robber, or robbers, has broken into a computer shop during the Blackout."

"So, someone broke into a computer shop, stealing computers, while there's no electricity in the city?" Takuma shook his head. "Whoever did this is either an idiot, or they knew that the system would recover in thirty minutes."

"They must also be regular at the shop, because they hit it in the day when the owner had to close earlier." Evan said. Everything was starting to make sense already, they had a few pieces of the puzzle, but not enough to suppose the robber's identity. "If the individuals who caused the chaos in the city and robbed that shop are the same, then this couldn't be the end. Someone who has the power to shut down the technology of the entire city wouldn't just limit themselves to stealing from a small shop."

"But we can't stop them either." Roxy spoke up. "As skilled as we're, that doesn't change the fact that we're just kids. We don't have access to the resources necessary to monitor the entire city for a second attack and the police definitely won't let you investigate the robbery."

"Maybe we can't do that, but we also can't just let stuff like this to keep happening." Vermilya intervened. "I heard the news online, by this morning, the police has found thirteen dead. We can't just stay here and let the culprit kill thirteen people every time they turn off the lights."

"I'll try to get close to that Jean guy, see if he's any good." Roxy leaned back. "Maybe he could help out with this incident as well."

"I'll be close if you don't mind." Avice informed her. "If I get a good look at his face, or hear his full name, I would be able to look up his online information during school time. This way brother and Levant won't have to waste any more time on him than we have. Isn't that right?"

"That sounds like a plan to me." Takuma turned toward Avice and gave a nod. "If you find anything important before break, it would be great."

"And what'll I do?" Fujiko asked. She was the oldest in the group and the only one who wasn't going to school, so what would her role be?

"Just stay at home for today." Evan answered. "As you already saw, the city isn't safe right now. Best you can do is to stay out of harm's way until we figure out something."

"Then it's settled!" Vermilya stood up and pointed toward Roxy. "You'll get us the info, Avice'll will do what she can with it and then you'll tell us what you found. If Jean is trustworthy, and skilled, we'll use him to track down that hacker! Let's go, Gear Squad!"

Roxy took a deep breath, walking through the school entrance with Avice next to her. The young girl was planning to try and get the info about Jean as quickly as possible. That way Avice could get to work on identifying the student earlier and finish up faster as well. Problem was that outside of how he looked, Roxy didn't know anything else about that student, which years he was, which was his class, in other words, she wasn't sure where she could find him.

"Are you nervous?" Avice glanced at her companion. They have lived together for more than a year and she already learned how to tell when Roxy was nervous, scared – as well as the best way to deal with those negative emotions.

"I don't think that I'll be able to do it. I'll definitely fuck this up." Avice sighed at Roxy's sudden pessimism.

"Calm down." Avice patter her partner's shoulder. "Listen, I'm going to stay at a distance from you, so you can regain your self-esteem. Everything will go fine, trust me."

"I don't know…" Roxy lowered her head and scratched the back of her head. "I don't know even where to look for him."

Avice stopped, prompting Roxy to turn back. The young Greyson looked around for a few moments until an idea came to her. "Correct me, but wasn't that guy in a club? I believe that Vermilya told me that his club was closed down."

"Yeah, I learned about that by sheer luck." Roxy nodded. She was wondering why Avice asked about the club… "Are you suggesting to go look there?"

"Even if the club is closed down, you may find someone who knows where Jean could be found." Avice shrugged. "Just… just go and see for yourself, I'll follow shortly."

Roxy was curious on just what the Greyson had in mind, but she agreed either way and left to check the club on her own. Strangely enough, the farther away from Avice she was, the more confident she felt. It was a strange thing to say, but being around Avice always made her feel miserable and worthless; like all of her self-respect and happiness were being sucked out of her body or something. Was that why Avice wanted her to go on her own? Did the Greyson know about how Roxy was feeling around her?

"Focus." Roxy shook her head; it wasn't time to get carried away, she was on an important mission!

It didn't take long for the girl to find the old club room. Even though she passed through that corridor only once, she had a very good memory. The girl paused for a moment to take a good look at the closed door. It no longer had the place with the words 'Tech Club' on it. Roxy glanced around to check if anyone else was looking and then she slowly opened the door to look inside. There were no computers anymore, only three lines of desks, the place was already cleared out, with no sight that this room used to belong to a club.

"Is there something I can help you with?"

Roxy turned toward the voice. It was a woman with short blonde hair and green eyes, dressed in a dark grey jacket with a white blouse and a grey skirt. Roxy recognized the woman as the teacher that was here yesterday - Miss Valley she believed was the name.

"Ah, I just wondered, isn't this the Tech Club's room?" Roxy asked, playing dumb.

"It used to." Miss Valley sighed and looked into the door. "Sadly it didn't have enough members, so we had to close it yesterday. Did you want to join?"

"I was just interested." Roxy shrugged. "I'm interested in learning more about computers and technology in general. Was there anyone in this club, who could help me out with that?"

"I believe, yes." Miss Valley nodded. "Jean Lester from class Four-B was the one who asked me for help to form this club. He's very smart and, I dare say, the best with technology in the entire school."

"I see…" Roxy nodded and smiled. Now she had a name and didn't have to go talk with Jean directly. "Thanks for your help, Miss… Umm…"

"Valley." Miss Valley told her. "And you are?"

"Roxanna Petit from class Three-C." In other words, that Jean was a year older than her and was also in the B-classes, which meant that he was smarter than students from the C-classes, her included.

"Three? That means that I'm going to be your Math teacher next year." Miss Valley smiled.

"It's nice to meet you then, Miss Valley." Roxy bowed to the teacher. "You must excuse me now, but I should hurry for classes."

Roxy waved and ran off toward her classroom, leaving Miss Valley. The teacher kept smiling long after the girl left her, she turned back toward the empty club room and frowned before closing the door.

* * *

"Thanks to Roxy, I was able to get the full name of our potential ally." Avice put her Duel Disk on the table and pushed it toward the others. "Here's all of the information that I was able to obtain about Jean Lester. He has taken part in several competitions, showcasing amazing skills at software engineering at the age of eleven."

"So, a computer genius then?" Takuma whistled at the info. "He could be a very good addition to our group, won't he, Evan?"

"His biography definitely is something." Evan nodded. "According to this he also has an account in Dueling Dungeon Nexus. How did you find that out?"

"I already had his address, so I just checked to see if there was anyone logging into Nexus from the boy's location." Avice crossed her legs and winked. "But the deeper I went, the more interesting stuff I found about this fella. Apparently his father used to work in the mines until an accident put him into a bed, unable to move. The only source of money his family has comes from his mother, who works part-time in a fast food restaurant."

"A poor boy with extraordinary skills in software engineering, who lost his only access to a good computer when his club got closed. What does this sound like to you?" Vermilya asked.

"You think that he's the one who caused the Blackout yesterday?" Roxy asked.

"We can't be sure in anything yet, but I agree that he fits the criteria to be suspect, and is the only lead we have at the moment." Takuma reasoned. "We shouldn't ignore this just because of his age."

"Me and Roxy will keep an eye out of him, you can be sure of that." Avice replied, collecting her Duel Disk. "But we can't follow his every step, even less outside school. Is Levant still busy with his Student Counter business?"

"He won't be able to help out with this case." Evan took a sip from his coffee. "Now focus, you all got a job to do."

* * *

Avice paused in front of her classroom and looked down at her Duel Disk. "That's interesting…"

"What is it?" Roxy stepped closer to take a look at the Greyson's Duel Disk. "You got access to the school's main computer?"

"Government connections, remember?" Avice gave a quick smirk to her pupil. "But according to this, Jean hasn't been in class today. So, where could he be?"

"You don't think that he's going to try and rob another shop during daylight, do you?" Roxy was worried, more about Jean that about the consequences that such actions could have for the city.

"I don't know." Avice shook her head. "But I should inform Evan as soon as possible!"

Roxy nodded and gave the girl some space to call her brother; tell him and the rest about this new development.

"Shit!" Avice cursed. "For some reason I can't contact him!"

That was bad. Perhaps they should go to Evan's school and talk to him directly about this? Roxy was about to open her mouth to suggest that, when suddenly the school bell began to ring. The two girls, as well as the other students, looked up in confusion. There were five more minutes before class started, and the bell wasn't stopping ringing. This gave Roxy a bad feeling and she ran off toward the exit with Avice following shortly after.

Roxy stopped in front of the entrance and pushed it, but the door wouldn't open. Roxy bit her lip and pushed again, but to no effect; the door was locked. That was the one thing they didn't want to happen.

"We're locked inside." Roxy ran a hand through her hair, quickly starting to panic. "How?"

"The school is using a computer system for the locks of the doors and the windows." Avice informed her. "This was done after a group of school shooters took over the high school in Oklada and locked all of the exits. They also replaced all the windows and glass with bulletproof glass so shooters couldn't fire from the outside. There's no way we can break them."

"So we're trapped inside!" Roxy yelled back. "Do you think that this is that boy's work?"

"Someone must hack into the main computer of the school in order to activate the lockdown, so its most likely his doing." Avice nodded.

Roxy slammed her fist against the wall. They couldn't get out and their communications were cut off as well. Was there a way that this could get any worse? Actually… "Is it me, or is it starting to get hot in here?"

"It seems that our little terrorist has taken over the heating system as well. With all of the doors and windows locked, it would take no more than a four hours until we're all cooked."

Roxy could already hear the other students starting to panic and yell from across the hall. This was a death trap, but why would Jean do something like that? Because he lost his club room? Because the school took the computers that THEY gave him? No, this wasn't the full picture. There was more to all of this…

"Let's go." Avice pulled the girl. "We're leaving."

"Leaving?" Roxy repeated. "How are we going to leave? All doors and windows are locked down!"

"We're not going to use those." Avice said. "One thing that the computer doesn't control in this building are the vents. We should get out before they get all heated up."

Roxy's eyes widened. She nodded and ran off after Avice. They had a way out, but the clock was still ticking for the rest of their school.

* * *

Roxy gasped for her breath, sweat dripping from her face. She thought that they were going to die while crawling through the vents. How Avice came up with the idea of using them as a mean of escape was beyond Roxy, but she had the feeling that asking that would lead to a completely different story that they didn't have time for.

The girl looked around them, there we no other people outside, the streets were empty with just the two of them skipping class. Though it could seem unusual for there to be no bad apples skipping school, they were a part of the most elite school on the continent and not everyone could get to study at a place like this, even less students with the bad habit of running from classes.

Roxy stopped in the park and looked around. Evan, Levant, Takuma and Vermilya were all there, waiting for the younger girls to join up with them. She took a careful look at them, there was sweat dripping from their faces, a trait through which the young girl deduced how exactly they managed to escape the lockdown.

Roxy shook her head, disappointed with herself for not thinking about this earlier. Of course the Greysons would have at least a few contingency plans and escape routes ready in case they ever got trapped inside the school. That was how absurd and paranoid they were.

"What's the situation?" Avice asked.

"The entire island of Westview Advanced Secondary School was hacked." Levant replied. "All buildings, all the technology is no longer in our control. All communications within the limits of the island are cut off as well, no one can call for help or leave. We're literally the only people who can do something right now."

Roxy leaned back against one of the trees and took a deep breath. She was already surprised by how her school building was taken control off, but to hack into the entire island of Westview Advanced Secondary School? All the school buildings, the dormitories – this already went too far, now it was just madness.

"What are you suggesting we do? The person causing this could be anywhere." Avice reminded her teammates.

"I don't think so." Evan stepped in front of the group. "To hack into the system of the island and take control of it is harder than causing a Blackout. Due to every school building having its own system, to do all of this with just a computer would take weeks of work. We also already found a clue, Takuma."

The boy nodded and raised his phone with a photo of an open power box. "After we left our school building through the vents I checked the power box on the outside of the school. There's a chip on it that can't be removed without risking frying the entire system, turning that sick death trap into a permanent one."

"Even if you are a genius, if you don't have military grade tech, you can only make second-hand chips. Our little terrorist-wannabe would need to be within a certain range to keep a stable signal and ensure that the chips will do their job." Levant added. "Our target is somewhere on the island."

"Where exactly is the question here." Vermilya pushed her hair behind her ear. "We can't just run around the island, searching every building and every room that isn't locked down."

"Maybe we don't have to." Evan told them. "Only the communication of our Duel Disks is deactivated, we can still use them. Our Duel Disk are able to pick up signals in the network, if Levant could reverse engineer it, we could use this to track the signal used on the chips."

"That could actually work." Levant agreed. "But it's going to take some time."

"Won't you need instruments for that?" Takuma asked.

"I'm not going to break the Duel Disk into pieces, just reverse its programming." Levant retorted and looked at Evan. "This is the first time we go after something like this, should we build special devices for situations likes this after we save everyone?"

"The moneys are from me." Evan answered nonchalantly. "Now focus on getting that tracker working."

Levant said no more. He turned his back to the group and pulled out his Duel Disk, starting his work on it while Roxy put her own Duel Disks on her wrists. Chances were that Jean wouldn't just let them stop his crazy work, they would need to find an alternative and Roxy already had one ready. If negotiations failed, she would make him pay for making her relieve that nightmare.

"Done!" Levant shouted shortly after. "I picked up several signals, all of which connected at a single point."

"What are the words, boss?" Vermilya looked at Evan with a smirk.

The coldhearted duelist sighed and stepped forward. "Gear Squad, hunt!"

* * *

The group stopped in front of one of the four dormitories on the island. Those buildings were empty during the day when the students had to go to school and no one would think of looking into them for hackers. Levant checked the data once again to be sure and then moved near Evan to show him what he found.

"The signals connect at the last floor, on the attic."

"The doors aren't connect to any systems, so he couldn't lock them without a key, but I bet that the elevators are all out of order." Takuma commented.

Evan kicked the door open and walked inside, Avice and his pupils following right behind their 'leader'. The cameras, elevators and the lights were all deactivated, turning this building into little more than a dark and empty box. With everything turned off, their target couldn't tell that a group of highly trained duelists were coming to apprehend him.

It took around five minutes for the group to reach the top of the eight floor tall building and to come in front of the door leading toward the attic. Evan put a hand on the handle and twisted it, but the door didn't open. It was locked.

"Clever bastard." Evan muttered under his nose and clenched his fist.

"Shall we break it down?" Takuma suggested.

"What if he's armed?" Evan turned back to the group. "We can't risk getting shot or worse. There must be an alternative way inside."

"What if he doesn't know that you are trying to break the door?" Roxy asked.

"How?"

"Watch." Roxy sighed and stepped in front of the door, knocking with her fist. "Jean! I know that you are inside!"

"W-… How did you find me?!" a voice yelled from the other side, confirming the hacker's identity.

"I know that you are the one behind all of this!" Roxy shouted. "Do you know what you are doing?! You are going to murder everyone in this school just because they closed your club!"

"The club… How do you know about the club? Who the heck are you!?"

"That doesn't matter!" Roxy slammed her fist against the door. "Jean… you are hurting people! Living, breathing people! Whatever happened, we can fix it together, but now like this. The students and teachers that you have trapped aren't to blame for what happened."

"No… You won't understand! _They_ wanted this! If I don't do this, they will come for me!"

They? The duelists on the outside gave each other a questionable glance. This wasn't because of the club, the chaos, the killing, something else caused Jean to do all of those things; someone else.

"Who are they, Jean?" Roxy leaned forward, pressing her forehead against the wall. "Who're you afraid off?"

"This is their big first act… our first big act. I won't allow you to ruin it!"

"He has snapped." Takuma whispered.

Roxy looked down at her Duel Disk. Takuma was right, the boy on the other side has lost its mind, and there was no point in talking to him anymore. Negotiations failed, so it was time for more drastic actions.

"Then you must duel me, Jean!" Roxy shouted.

"And why exactly would I do that?"

"Because my Duel Disk is a different model, it connects to a different satellite and because of that you couldn't cut my communications." That was a load of bullshit, but Roxy hoped that the boy would fall for it.

"And why haven't you used that to call someone already?" Yeah, he wasn't buying it.

"If I do, you will go to jail, Jean. I don't want to get your life ruined just because of a mistake. If we duel and I win, I want you to shut down this crazy trap of yours and come out. If you don't accept the duel, I'll call the police and you know how that would end, don't you?"

Jean didn't respond. Did she saw through her bluff? If this was so important for him, he wouldn't let such a chance to slide. There was nothing forcing him to do as promised after the duel, even if he lost, he could still continue what he was doing, or so he would think. Roxy glanced at her friends, the moment their duel started, they would use the chance to break down the door and walk inside.

Finally, the voice from the other side of the door spoke again. "And what will happen if I win?"

"You are smart, you'll figure a way to silence me." Roxy answered. She was giving him ideas, but this was a risk that she had to take if she wanted to save all the students and teachers whose lives was on the line.

"Very well then, I accept." Roxy sighed in relief. "I'll send you a challenge to you in VR, what's your username?"

"…Proxy."

"The Ice Princess!?" Roxy sighed. Ice princess was the title that she was given in VR worlds due to her avatar and deck. She knew that she had quite the popularity among the users despite having a very low rating in the boards, but even Jean knew about her?

"That's right." Roxy smirked and raised her Duel Disk. "I'm the Ice Princess."

"That's unexpected." Came a response from Jean. "But I know your dueling, Ice Princess!"

Roxy's Duel Disk beeped and a message appeared before her. She looked back at her friends and gave then a nod for confirmation before turning back to her Duel Disk. "If you know how I duel, then there's nothing for you to worry about, is there?"

With that said, Roxy clicked 'Accept' and the world around her began to break apart. The walls, the ceiling and the ground, everything that once surrounded her disappeared and was replaced by strings of data that moved around her. The girl closed her eyes and let her body change as well, transforming into her virtual alter ego.

Proxy's skin was a very pale shade of blue with short, white spiky hair swept upward and to the left side of his head with blue headset in the form of crystals covering her cheeks and ears. For her face, she used a facial recognition feature with the only major changes (expect for the skin) being two crystal marks on her left cheek and her eyes, which were a very dark shade of blue with a light blue sclera.

Her outfit consisted of a sleeveless blue uniform with white light plates of icy crystals protecting the areas below her chest and her hips while leaving her shoulder blades uncovered. Her arms were covered in white fingerless gloves that reached all the way up to her armpits and were black on the back. From the waist below, Proxy's outfit continued with a black skirt that reached to her knees; its surface was covered by a tiny layer of ice that reflected the sunlight like crystals. Her boots were black with blue armor on the outsole and midsole, they reached to her tights with the skirt hid, along with the dark blue pantyhose that she wore underneath, from view. Finally were two wings made of hundreds dark blue crystals that rested on her back like a cloak when they weren't activated.

After completing her transformation, the girl landed on top of her D-Board, a slim crystal blue one with a yellow core in the center. A stream of data appeared under her and she speeded forward as a second body materialized next to her.

Proxy put a hand over her mouth as to not laugh. Her opponent's avatar, the avatar of that hacker mastermind was a pig standing on two legs with a black cape and a mask over its face. Seriously?!

The pig landed on top of a circular black D-Board and moved in front of Proxy, turning around to face her. The avatar looked her over carefully and then raised its left arm (?) holding up its Duel Disk.

"I won't let you ruin everything that I was working on!" The pig shouted. "As much as it hurts me to do this, I'll defeat you, Ice Princess!"

"I'm sorry Jean, but I have people that are counting on me as well." Proxy clenched her fist. "I won't let you run rampant; not under my watch!"

"SPEED DUEL!"

 **『** **Proxy LP: 4000 Hand: 4 (VS) Prig-G LP: 4000 Hand: 4** **』**

"I'm going to take the first move!" Prig-G exclaimed. "Since you control no monsters I can Special Summon _Hack Worm (Lv.1, ATK: 0)_ from my hand!" The mechanical worm appeared in front of Prig-G. "And now I activate Machine Duplication to Special Summon two more copies of Hack Worm from my deck! Now I Link Summon!"

The mechanical Link Square appeared behind Prig-G and his three monsters turned into whirlwinds that flew into it.

"Arrowheads confirmed! The Summoning conditions are two or more Hack Monsters! I set three Hack Worms in the Link Markers! Link Summon! _**Hack Hivemind**_!"

Out of the portal flew a mechanical sphere with several glowing green lines attached in-between its metal plates and six tower-like conductor coils on its back. Two small arms were attached to the side of its spherical body, each ending with a shard blade. Its head was small, around one-fifteenth of its body size with a green visor.

* * *

 **Hack Hivemind**

 **Attribute: DARK/Type: Machine/Link/Effect**

 **L-Markers: Left, Right, Bottom**

 **ATK: 0/Link-3**

 **2 + "Hack" monsters**

 **Effect: This card gains 400 ATK for each Crash Counter on the field. While this card is on the field or in the GY, monsters with Crash Counter cannot declare an attack or change their battle position, except for DARK Machine monsters.**

* * *

'A Link Three right off the bat?' Proxy thought, looking at the monster in awe. 'Its attack power is zero and its effects is useless without any counters on the field, so what was he thinking summoning it right now?'

"I know what you are thinking." Prig-G glared at the girl. "I set a card and end my turn!"

'A set card as well? It must be to protect his monster from destruction or something.' Proxy narrowed her eyes. She was limited in the ways that she could approach the situation.

"It's my turn, draw!"

 **『** **Turn 2 [Proxy] LP: 4000 Hand: 5** **』**

Proxy exclaimed, taking a card from her hand. "I activate the Continuous Spell Card – _**BrioGear Purify Hazard**_!"

* * *

 **BrioGear Purify Hazard (Spell) Continuous**

 **You can discard 1 WATER monster, then draw 1 card. This card gains 1 Ice Counter every time the turn player discards a card(s) due to a card effect. During either player's End Phase, you can move the Ice Counters on this card to other cards on the field. You can only use the 1** **st** **effect of "BrioGear Purify Hazard" once per turn.**

* * *

"And now I activate Purify Hazard's effect. I discard _**BrioGear Blue Recruit**_ to put an Ice Counter on Purify Hazard and draw a new card." Proxy's Spell Card glowed with ice starting to cover its surface while Proxy drew. "And now Blue Recruit's effect allows me to Special Summon a Level Three or lower BrioGear monster from my deck upon its discarding!"

* * *

 **BrioGear Blue Recruit**

 **Lv. 3/Attribute: WATER/Type: Sea Serpent/Effect**

 **ATK: 1000/DEF: 100**

 **Effect: If this card is discarded to the GY: You can Special Summon 1 "BrioGear" monster from your Deck, except "BrioGear Blue Recruit". If this card is sent to the GY as material for the Link Summon of a WATER monster, it gains the following effect:**

· **This Link Summoned card cannot be destroyed by battle with monsters with have Ice Counter.**

* * *

"Come out, _**BrioGear Ghost Floe**_!" A line of data appeared next to Proxy and transformed into a piece of ice shaped like a ghost with a pink liquid moving inside of it, taking the form of two eyes.

* * *

 **BrioGear Ghost Floe**

 **Lv. 2/Attribute: WATER/Type: Aqua/Effect**

 **ATK: 400/DEF: 200**

 **Effect: If this card is discarded to the GY: You can target 1 " BrioGear " monster in your Graveyard, except "BrioGear Ghost Floe"; Special Summon that target. If you Link Summon a WATER monster, you can Special Summon this card from your GY, but banish it when it leaves the field.**

* * *

"You are using your monsters' discarding effect to quickly swarm the field for multiple Link Summons." Prig-G stated. "I should know because have watched many of your duels, you used to be an idol of mine!"

"I'm trying to help you out!" Proxy shouted back. "Do you really want to go down history as a mass murderer? What would your family think about you? How will your mother and father react to hearing that their son has murdered an entire school?"

"Don't get my family involved!" Prig-G yelled and crashed his D-Wheel into Proxy, knocking her off balance. "You don't know anything about me and my choice!"

"I know that it's wrong." Proxy hissed and threw her arm upward. "But don't listen to me, listen to my dueling! I Link Summon!"

A white mirror frame appeared in the sky. Its inside was filed with a blue circuit pattern while eight open flowers were put in place of the arrowheads.

"Arrowhead confirmed! The Summoning condition is a Level Four or lower WATER monster! I set Ghost Floe in the Link Marker!" The tiny monster turned into a whirlwind and flew into the bottom center flower of the frame. "Link Summon! Come forth, _**BrioGear Lotaxol**_!

Out of the glowing portal flew a combination between a fish and a lizard with white body and four small legs. Several golden clock gears were attached to its back, its belly was covered in metallic armor and six clock arms jutted out of the side of its head like horns. The really cute part of its appearance were the two small dot-like eyes at the sides of its head than made its face look like a sock puppet.

* * *

 **BrioGear Lotaxol**

 **Attribute: WATER/Type: Sea Serpent/Link/Effect**

 **L-Markers: Bottom**

 **ATK: 600/Link-1**

 **1 Level 4 or lower WATER**

 **Effect: When this card is Link Summon: You can target 1 Level 2 or lower WATER monster in your GY; Special Summon it to your zone this card points to.**

* * *

"I activate Lotaxol's effect!" Proxy continued. "When its Link Summoned, I can revive a Level Two or lower WATER monster from my grave. Return once more, Ghost Floe!"

The Link Monster's bottom arrow glowed and the tiny ice ghost raised from the data, sitting right in front of the arrow that was pointing at it.

"And now once again! I Link Summon!" the mirror flamed circuit appeared in front of Proxy and she threw both of her arms toward it. "Arrowheads confirmed! Summoning conditions are two WATER Effect monsters! I set BrioGear Lotaxol and Ghost Floe in the Link Markers!" The two monsters flew in the central bottom and top flowers, getting absorbed into them. "Link Summon! Huntress of the deep abyss! Link Two! _**Grand Serene the Link Ranger**_!"

A blue lightning fell from the portal and Proxy's monster formed. It was a covered in white armor with blue accents. The head was protected by a helmet that was shaped like a beast with a mouth guard and huge blue hair that reached the ankle. The monster's armor also had huge shoulder plates with golden bottoms connecting them to the rest of the armor. Its gauntlets had the appearance of claws with the right being white while the left was green and a bit larger with a small shield and two blades underneath. Its legs which were covered by armored boots with wings attached to each one. Serene raised its head and its eyes glow yellow as it landed in front of Proxy.

* * *

 **Grand Serene the Link Ranger**

 **Attribute: WATER/Type: Aqua/Link/Effect**

 **L-Markers: Top, Bottom**

 **ATK: 2100/Link-2**

 **2 WATER Effect monsters**

 **Effect: When this card inflicts battle damage to your opponent: You can send 1 monster linked to this card to the GY; inflict damage to your opponent equal to the original ATK of the monster send to the GY by this effect. At the start of your Battle Phase, if this card points to a monster: You can activate this effect; during this Battle Phase, this card can declare up to two attacks on monsters after this effect resolves, and if it does, draw a card every time this card destroys a monster by battle.**

* * *

"And now, I Normal Summon _**BrioGear Wave Crusher**_!" On my field appeared a warrior in silver armor with a blue cape and a huge broadsword with blue symbols glowing on the blade. It wore a golden mask that covered its face expect its green eyes which glowed as it stared ahead.

* * *

 **BrioGear Wave Crusher**

 **Level: 4/Attribute: WATER/Type: Warrior/Effect**

 **ATK: 1700/DEF: 100**

 **Effect: Once per turn: You can discard 1 WATER monster from your hand; this card gains 300 ATK. If this card on the field is destroyed and sent to the GY, you can place 1 Ice Counter on every monster your opponent controls.**

* * *

"Now I enter the Battle Phase!" Proxy exclaimed. "I attack Hack Hivemind with Wave Crusher!"

The warrior charged forward and swung its blade at the machine, cutting it in half. Hivemind's body exploded, knocking Prig-G backward.

"I activate my Trap! _**Anti-Hack**_!" Prig-G cried out. "This card negates the damage I would take from battles involving my Hack monsters and I put a Crash Counter on your monsters for every eight hundred points of damage that I negated by this effect!"

* * *

 **Anti-Hack (Trap) Normal**

 **If a "Hack" monster you control battles, you can activate this card: Negate all damage you would take from that battle, and if you do, place 1 Crash Counter on a face-up monster your opponent controls for every 800 points of damage negated by this effect. You can banish this card from your GY: Add 1 "Hack" card from your deck to the hand, except "Anti-Hack".**

* * *

"And now as a curse for destroy my monster, yours will be infected!" Prig-G pointed at Proxy's monsters. Serene and Wave Crusher cried out as green metal plates flew onto their bodies.

'He let me destroy his monster to use its ability from the Graveyard.' Proxy narrowed her eyes. 'I'm starting to get an idea of how his deck works, but I'll need a bit more time before I could counter-attack.'

"It seems that you caught me off guard there." Proxy sighed. "I end my turn."

"Then it's my turn again." Prig-G commented. "Draw!"

 **『** **Turn 3 [Prig-G] LP: 4000 Hand: 2** **』**

"First off, I activate the Spell Card – _**Hack Reborn**_! This Spell revives a Hack monster in my grave by negating its effects. I choose _Hack Worm (Lv.1, DEF: 0)_!" A black portal appeared below Prig-G and one of his Worms raised before him.

* * *

 **Hack Reborn (Spell) Normal**

 **Target 1 "Hack" monster in your GY: Special Summon that target, but its effects are negated. During your turn, except the turn this card was sent to the GY: You can banish this card from your GY; Add 1 "Hack" card from your deck to the hand, except "Hack Reborn".**

* * *

"Now, I Link Summon!" The Link Square formed behind the hacker once. "Arrowhead confirmed! Summoning condition is a Level Two or lower DARK Machine! I set Hack Worm on the Link Marker! Link Summon! _**Hack Infested**_!"

The new machine had the appearance of a butterfly. It had a long dark brown metal body covered in the same glowing green lines as the rest of the Hack monsters, but unlike them, this one also produced two large wings made of the same toxic green energy.

* * *

 **Hack Infested**

 **Attribute: DARK/Type: Machine/Link/Effect**

 **L-Markers: Top**

 **ATK: 0/Link-1**

 **1 Level 2 or lower DARK Machine monster**

 **Effect: You take no damage from battles involving this card. While this card is on the field or in the GY, monsters with Crash Counter have their effects negated and lose 300 ATK for each Crash Counter on them, except for DARK Machine monsters.**

* * *

"Due to Infester's ability, all of your monsters lose three hundred attack points." Prig-G clicker his fingers and Proxy's monsters lowered their heads, their attack points dropping to 1800 and 1400 respectively. "Now I banish Anti-Hack from my Graveyard to add _**Hack Multiplier**_ from my Deck to the hand, and then I activate it!"

* * *

 **Hack Multiplier (Spell) Continuous**

 **You can destroy 1 "Hack" monster you control: Place 1 Crash Counter on every monster in the same column as that monster. Monsters with Crash Counter cannot be used as Link Materials. Once per turn, during your End Phase: Inflict 300 damage to your opponent for every Crash Counter on their monsters. During your turn, except the turn this card was sent to the GY: You can banish this card from your GY; Add 1 "Hack" card from your deck to the hand, except "Hack Multiplier".**

* * *

"Now I use Hack Multiplier to destroy Hack Infester and put a Crash Counter on every monster you control in the same row!" Several lightnings shot out of Prig-G's Spell, destroying his Link Monster and sending its remains over to Proxy's monsters infecting them further. "And with new counters, Infester's ability in the graveyard will reduce their attack points even further"

 **Grand Serene the Link Ranger, ATK: 1800 – 300** → **1500**

 **BrioGear Wave Crusher, ATK: 1400 – 300** → **1100**

"With this, I end my turn." Prig-G finished. "During the End Phase, the effect of Multiplier activates, inflicting three hundred damage to you for every Crash Counter that infects your monsters!"

Another lightning shot out of Prig-G's Spell Card, but this time it stuck Proxy, causing the duelist to gasp and her avatar to glitch from the damage that she took.

 **『** **Proxy LP: 4000 - 1200** → **2800** **』**

"So you plan of letting my infected monsters remain so you can burn away my Life Points?" Proxy glared at her opponent. "Due to Multiplier I won't be able to summon any new Link Monsters, so you must think that you have won, right? But I'm not going down so easily! My turn, draw!"

 **『** **Turn 4 [Proxy] LP: 2800 Hand: 4** **』**

The young duelist looked at the card that she drew and then at the cards in her hand. She had all she needed to win this turn, but… She had to buy time for the others to break down the door.

"I set two cards and end my turn!" Proxy finished.

Just a bit more. She had to buy them just a bit more time before she could counterattack and put an end to this match. Prig-G didn't know yet, had a single turn before ended this duel before Proxy did.

"How disappointing." Prig-G sighed. "I've watched you make comebacks from duels that no other could come back from, yet you failed once I blocked your ability to use Link Monsters?"

Proxy lowered her head so that her hair was covering her eyes and asked: "Are you having fun?"

"What?"

"You heard me!" Proxy looked at her opponent. "You watched me duel, was a fan of me, so don't have fun now that you finally got to duel against your idol?"

"I never wanted to meet you." Prig-G replied coldly. "It's true that I loved watching your duels, but I never wanted to meet you because I knew that you wouldn't understand me, that you will see me as the villain."

"Why did you make an account in Nexus then?" Proxy pressed on. "If you didn't want to meet with anyone, then why did you make a profile there? Did you just want to escape reality?"

"I came in contact with something that you would never understand!" Prig-G yelled back at her. "I had a purpose, a mission! They gave me much, the programming, the knowledge, this deck, in return, I had to make a message!"

"Message? By killing hundreds of innocent people?" Proxy clenched her fist. "Just… Just who did you get yourself involved with, Jean?"

"Someone who gave me knowledge that you would never be able to fully understand." Prig-G muttered. "It's my turn now, I draw!"

 **『** **Turn 5 [Prig-G] LP: 4000 Hand: 2** **』**

"First, I banish Hack Reborn from my Graveyard to add _**Hack Crawler**_ from my deck to the hand! Next, I activate a second Hack Reborn to revive _Hack Worm (Lv.1, DEF: 0)_!" The tiny machine appeared in front of Grand Serene. "And now Hack Multiplier's effect activates! I destroy Hack Worm to put a Crash Counter on all of your monsters!"

Several lightnings shot out of Prig-G's Spell, destroying his Hack Worm and sending its remains over to Proxy's monsters infecting them further. "And with new counters, Infester's ability will reduce their attack points once more."

 **Grand Serene the Link Ranger, ATK: 1500 – 300** → **1200**

 **BrioGear Wave Crusher, ATK: 1100 – 300** → **800**

"Since a Hack monster was destroyed, I'm able to Special Summon Hack Crawler from my hand!"

A long line of black code appeared in front of Prig-G and it transformed into a monster. First appeared its head, a mechanical monstrosity with a single green line running through it and its lower jaw split into two. Following it, was a slim metal body with two green lines running down its sides. The monster had a battered look with part of its armor broken or removed. Long cables came out of its neck and then tied around each other. The beast flew over Prig-G's avatar and looked at Proxy, emitting a high-pitched screech from its mouth.

* * *

 **Hack Crawler**

 **Level: 7/Attribute: DARK/Type: Machine/Effect**

 **ATK: 1000/DEF: 1000**

 **Effect: This card cannot be Normal Summoned/Set. Must first me Special Summoned by its own effect. If a "Hack" monster you control is destroyed by a card effect and send to the GY: You can Special Summon this card from your GY (if it was there when the monster was destroyed) or hand (even if not). Once per turn (Quick Effect): You can target 1 face-up monster on the field, put a Crash Counter on it. You can target 1 monster your opponent controls with Crash Counters on it: Take control of it, and if you do, remove all Crash Counters from it. You cannot activate this effect if you already control a monster through this effect of "Hack Crawler".**

* * *

"I take it that this is your ace monster, huh?" Proxy guessed. "Show me what it got!"

"Gladly." Prig-G raised his arm forward. "I activate Hack Crawler's effect! I take control of Grand Serene the Link Ranger!"

The machine monster threw its cables forward and they tied themselves around Serene's wrists. Proxy's monster cried out and tried to fight back.

"I won't let you!" Proxy shouted. "I activate my Trap Card – _Diamond Dust_! All WATER monsters on my field are destroyed and you take five hundred points of damage for each! Take this!"

Grand Serene pulled herself and then looked back at Proxy, nodding before she burst into pieces of ice that flew toward Prig-G, hitting him in the knee. The duelist cried out and fell on his knees as Wave Crusher exploded as well and another ice shard pierced his shoulder.

 **『** **Prig-G LP: 4000 - 1000** → **3000** **』**

"Damn you!" Prig-G cursed.

"I'm not over!" Proxy gestured toward her remaining card. "Trap Activate – Torrential Reborn! This card revives all of my destroyed monsters and inflicts five hundred points of damage to you for each! Come back, _Grand Serene the Link Ranger (ATK: 2100, Link-2)_ and _BrioGear Wave Crusher (Lv.4, ATK: 1700)_!"

Proxy's two monsters raised on her field once more and both of them fired a stream of water at Prig-G, knocking the hacker on his back.

 **『** **Prig-G LP: 3000 - 1000** → **2000** **』**

"Then I'm going to use Crawler's ability to put a Crash Counter on Grand Serene!" The Link Monster cried out once more as a new counter was placed on her body.

 **Grand Serene the Link Ranger, ATK: 2100 – 300** → **1800**

"And now I'll use Crawler's ability to take control of Grand Serene and remove the Crash Counter from her!" The machine monster threw its cables forward and caught Serene's wrists once again, this time managing to pull the monster without much resistance.

 **Grand Serene the Link Ranger, ATK: 1800 + 300** → **2100**

"You went through all of this trouble only for me to still steal your ace!" Prig-G spoke with confidence. "Now battle! I use Grand Serene the Link Ranger to attack BrioGear Wave Crusher! _**Final Serenity**_!"

The Link Monster jumped in the air and stretched out her left arm, creating an energy string that connected the two ends. A single blue arrow formed in her other hand and she put it on the bow, aiming for the warrior. Serene let go of the arrow and it shot forward, piercing Wave Crusher.

 **『** **Proxy LP: 2800 - 400** → **2400** **』**

"When Wave Crusher is destroyed, all of your monsters gain an Ice Counter!" Proxy pointed out as both Prig-G's Hack Crawler and her Serene got a layer of ice over their bodies.

"That's unimportant! Now Hack Crawler will attack you directly as well!" The machine's three eyes all glowed red and it opened its jaw, unleashing a single red beam that cut through Proxy's body. The girl cried out and held an arm over her wound, her body starting to glitch again from the pain.

 **『** **Proxy LP: 2400 - 1000** → **1400** **』**

"With that, I end my turn." Prig-G finished. "You fought so hard to remove all of the counters from your Serene, but in the end, she still fell into my arms. How will you win, with your strongest monster under my command?"

Proxy looked at the remaining cards in his hand then spoke up. "…I draw."

 **『** **Turn 6 [Proxy] LP: 1400 Hand: 3** **』**

"First off, I activate the Field Spell _**Lair of Silence**_! Due to this card's effect, all monsters except for WATER monsters lose their abilities, the power to attack and change their battle positions!"

"What?" Prig-G's eyes widened and he turned toward Hack Crawler, only to see his ace covered in ice.

* * *

 **Lair of Silence (Spell) Field**

 **Once per turn: If a WATER monster is Special Summoned on your side of the field, you can place an Ice Counter on 1 face-up monster your opponent controls. Monsters with an Ice Counter on them lose 300 ATK, also they cannot attack, change their battle position or activate their effects, except for WATER Monsters. If a WATER monster(s) you control is sent to the GY as Link Material(s), you can discard 1 card: Special Summon those monsters in Defense Position**

* * *

"Next I activate the effect of Purify Hazard to discard a card and draw a new one!" Proxy looked at the card that she got and smiled. "I banish BrioGear Lotaxol and BrioGear Ghost Floe from my Graveyard to revive _**BrioGear Leviathan Dragon**_!"

A blue serpent with a purple belly raised from the data the duelist were riding. It had gears and large artificial membranes that served as wings to keep it over the data. Its forked tail was made out from two sharp metal rods. Its head was massive, with two pairs of eyes and large metal jaws with an underbite. One large, metal mandibles was protrude underneath the bottom jaw. The head and back were coated with a yellow carapace that produces large spikes which covered most of its back.

* * *

 **BrioGear Leviathan Dragon**

 **Level: 7/Attribute: WATER/Type: Sea Serpent/Effect**

 **ATK: 2600/DEF: 2100**

 **Effect: If this card is in your GY: You can banish 2 other WATER monsters from your GY; Special Summon this card. Once per turn: You can target 1 "BrioGear" monster in your GY; Special Summon it.**

* * *

"And now I activate Leviathan Dragon's effect! Once per turn, I can revive a BrioGear monster from my Graveyard, rise again, Wave Crusher!" The warrior jumped out of the graveyard and roared, swinging its sword.

"Let's end this!" Proxy winked and threw her arms upward. "Come forth, circuit of life!" Proxy's circuit opened above her. "Arrowheads confirmed! Summoning requirements are two BrioGear monsters! I set BrioGear Wave Crusher and BrioGear Leviathan Dragon in the Link Markers! Link Summon! Link Two, _**BrioGear Enhance Mermail**_!"

A little mermaid with blue skin and long pink hair appeared on my field with a wink. Her pupils were bright green and large. She had golden armor on her arms and chest with colorful pearls decorating the edges. Her shoulders and neck were mostly exposed with just a single gear put on her neck like a choker. A belt made from white pearls decorated her waist, and a blue crystal was in place of her belly button.

* * *

 **BrioGear Enhance Mermail**

 **Attribute: WATER/Type: Aqua/Link/Effect**

 **L-Markers: Bottom, Right**

 **ATK: 1700/Link-2**

 **2 "BrioGear" monsters**

 **Effect: Once per turn (Quick Effect): You can halve the ATK of 1 monster linked to this card, and if you do, increase the ATK of 1 "BrioGear" monster you control by the same amount, except the monster whose ATK was halved. During the End Phase of the turn, you activated this effect, the ATK of all monsters you control becomes their original ATK.**

* * *

"Another Link Two monster?" Prig-G looked at Proxy's new monster. "Even if you attack with it, your monster isn't strong enough to beat both of my monsters!"

"Who said that Enhance Mermail is going to attack?" Proxy smirked. "You see, you might know my deck because you watched my Duels, but you haven't watched the most important ones. Behind every success I have on stage lies days of painful training. Stealing Serene? My mentors did that all the time! Let's go, Battle Phase!"

Proxy speeded forward, passing Prig-G and then turned around to face him with Enhance Mermail before her. "I activate a Quick-Play Spell: _Rebellion_! During either of our Battle Phases, this card allows me to take control of one of your monsters and attack with it, however other monsters I control cannot battle that turn! I'll take bake Grand Serene the Link Ranger!"

Proxy's ace leaped into the air and landed behind Enhance Mermail, activating its brow. The Link Two looked back at Proxy and nodded before turning its attention toward Prig and his monster.

"N-no way!" Prig-G's eyes widened. His data on Proxy's dueling and her deck wasn't anywhere near complete…

"Serene, please do the honors!" Proxy spoke up to her monster. "Take down Hack Crawler with Final Serenity!"

Proxy's monster fired an arrow at the frozen machine, piercing its chest.

"Oh, also. Due to Lair of Silence, your monsters with Ice Counters on them lose three hundred attack points." Proxy clicked her fingers.

 **Hack Crawler, ATK: 1000 – 300** → **700**

The ice that was covering Prig-G's ace cracked and then the machine exploded, knocking its owner off the D-Board that he was riding.

 **『** **Prig-G LP: 2000 - 1400** → **600** **』**

"And now Serene's effect activates!" Proxy clicked her fingers again as Serene raised her arm and Enhance Mermail transformed into an arrow. "I release Enhance Mermail to inflict her attack as damage to you! _**Enhance Arrow**_!"

Serene fired her arrow straight through Prig-G's body and it exploded, accelerating his already falling body.

 **『** **Prig-G LP: 600 - 1700** → **0** **』**

 **『** **Winner: Proxy** **』**

Proxy turned around and flew back to Prig-G. Her opponent was lying on the ground made of data, looking at the void in front of him. His eyes didn't move when Proxy's D-Board flew over him, nor when she jumped off and landed next to him.

"It's over Jean. Give up." Proxy reached out with a hand to help him stand-up.

"No, I still have one final move." Prig-G retorted and rolled to the side before standing up. "They left me one final trick!"

With those words, Prig-G summoned an orb of black data in his palm and squeezed it. Electricity flew out of the orb and toward Proxy, who jumped to the side, avoiding the dangerous energy. She expected Prig-G to not give up, but he was actually going to try and kill her?!

"This is a failsafe that can be used only if my role is discovered!" Prig-G shouted. "With this I- I-! ARGH!" the little pig cried out and fell down on his knees, the data starting to corrupt his avatar. "No! Not me!"

"Shit." Proxy quickly pressed the exit button on her Duel Disk. The digital world that she was in, began to fall apart before her eyes and she found herself lying on the ground with Avice and Vermilya sitting next to her while Evan Takuma and Levant were charging at the locker door, slamming their bodies against it over and over again, until the lock finally broke and the door spread open, letting them inside.

Evan looked around the room. It was mostly empty since none of the students living in these dorms actually used the attic to keep things. There was cheap computer equipment put on top of several box and Jean…

The boy was lying on the ground with his eyes wide open and saliva running down his chin. The boys looked at each other and Takuma walked outside to hold the girls from entering while Evan moved closer to the body. He knelt down and put two fingers on the side of his neck to check his pulse.

"He's dead." Evan confirmed and stood back up.

He wanted to ask, was it all that worth it? Dying like that? As a killer surrounded by a group of strangers that he didn't know and who in turn didn't know that he existed until this entire fiasco? But Evan knew that it was pointless to ask a corpse. The death didn't tell stories, and those who lived foolishly are destined to suffer in their death…

* * *

Many hours later, everything went back to how it was. Levant used Jean's equipment to deactivate the chips and free all the locked students, Avice gave the cops an anonymous tip and everyone was saved. The names of the heroes who stopped Jean weren't going to be written in a newspaper or mentioned in the news, something that neither of them was very disappointed with, because no one was going to ask them to answer for Jean's death.

It was already nighttime in the city once more, darkness covered the sky and the lights of the buildings and billboards illuminated the streets. The little group of heroes, or more correctly, vigilantes – have come together for a meeting at Pizza Uno, a small shop that was located just three streets away from the island of their school.

"So, any explanation about what happened with that kid and why he tried to trap everyone inside the school?" Takuma asked, taking a bite from his Pizza Margherita.

"The motives are still not clear, but according to police records, he died from an electrical charge of his Duel Disk." Levant answered. "What a waste of a brilliant mind."

"I still can't understand why someone would go that far." Roxy admitted. "He had intellect, a bright future in front of him. What could cause a man to so easily give up on their life, who made him do all of this and why?"

"Even if it was someone else who told him to do that, it was Jean that choose to go along with it." Avice reminded, looking at her phone for the news. "He was as guilty, if not more."

"But it's all over now, right?" Takuma sighed and leaned back in his seat. "We won. Jean choose to take his own life, none of us would have been able to stop him from doing that. What we must focus on right now is the future!"

"Yeah, that could be a bit hard to do…" Avice rubbed her neck nervously.

"After the news that a student died from an electric charge caused by a Duel Disk, the police will start looking into our company's business again." Evan explained and looked downward at the table in front of him. "Me and Avice will be busy clearing our company's time and proving that the Duel Disks we produce aren't dangerous for use."

"You know, the fact that his death was caused by that weird weapon he pulled out in the virtual reality made me think of those other cases with the comatose players." Proxy spoke up. "Do you think that Jean was connected to that?"

"I tried to look into his account after the incident, but it was erased." Evan crossed his arms. "Not only was his account erased, I couldn't find the Hack archetype that he used in his duel against you anywhere. The deck that was placed inside his Duel Disk, and the one that's listen in his profile, isn't the same as the one that he used in his duel against you."

The group stared at each other. A duelist gets their brain fried after they lose a duel in VR, a bunch of other duelists are found brain dead inside their rooms after their avatars suddenly disappear. Several accounts that can't be deleted by the admins, one that mysteriously stops to exist after its owner's death. An archetype of cards that didn't exist in the data. A never-ending mystery where the evidences disappear a moment after they appear.

This was all just the beginning of something, something dark and evil, something that would end up with many more body bags, something that they all knew couldn't be stopped anymore. War was knocking on the door…


End file.
